# بستان، روضة



## Josh_

I was reading a passage of Ibn Battuta's travels and I came across the word بساتين basaatiin (singular بستان bustaan), a synonym of حديقة , and was wondering if it is commonly used in العربية المعاصرة as I can't remember ever seeing it?


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## elroy

The word is definitely common in Palestinian Arabic.  In fact, it's the "standard" word that's generally used for "garden."  Whether it's acceptable in MSA, I can't say for sure but I would say that it is.

I looked it up on Sakhr, which lists it but says that it's not of Arabic origin.  Interesting.  Of course, the word's etymology tells us nothing about whether it's acceptable in MSA.


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## Josh_

That's interesting that you found out it is not of Arabic origin, because that's what I thought when I saw the word. For some reason it just didn't feel like an Arabic word.


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## elroy

بستان sounds very Arabic to me as I've been using it all my life!  I also just remembered that it's one of the words we use for "kindergarten" (in Palestinian Arabic).


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## DrLindenbrock

Hi,
as you all  can see I'm not a native speaker but I feel confident in saying that bustAn بستان is correct in MSA.
In my textbook I actually found بستان more often than 7adIqa حديقة....

As for the etymology, the word comes from persian.
It is a compound of bo / بو (scent, smell, aroma) and estân / استان . I think we are all familiar with the ending -estan or -stan....think of Afghanistan, Turkmenistan etc.
Estân means "the place of"....
So, in Persian:
أفغانستان = the place of the Afghans
بستان = the place of scent > garden

As you see, when creating the word "bo" loses the "wAw" and the E in "estân" is no longer needed, so the result is bostân بستان .
Of course, although of Persian origin, nobody can deny it is now a fully Arabic word!

PS a little off-topic, but I just remembered another interesting Persian word with a similar structure:
qabrestân قبرستان = cemetery
A compound of qabr ("tomb" in Arabic) and -estân!
The only thing is that I don't remember how you say cemetery in Arabic  ....I can't check now, I'll look later...


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## ayed

DrLindenbrock said:


> The only thing is that I don't remember how you say cemetery in Arabic  ....I can't check now, I'll look later...


Maqbarah (*مقبرة*)


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## cherine

Josh Adkins said:


> I was reading a passage of Ibn Battuta's travels and I came across the word بساتين basaatiin (singular بستان bustaan), a synonym of حديقة , and was wondering if it is commonly used in العربية المعاصرة as I can't remember ever seeing it?


There's a district in Cairo named البساتين  but when we write in fus7a we mostly use the word 7adiiqa/7adaa2iq حديقة-حدائق .

I think you know the colloquial form  geneina-ganaayen جنينة - جناين


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## suma

I always felt (from my learning, not native speaker background) that _bustaan_ was more synonymous with garden but also more akin to "orchard" or "grove" as in orange grove, peach grove, apple orchard.

_rawDah _is used perhaps even less.


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## elroy

suma said:


> I always felt (from my learning, not native speaker background) that _bustaan_ was more synonymous with garden but also more akin to "orchard" or "grove" as in orange grove, peach grove, apple orchard.


 This is true.


> _rawDah _is used perhaps even less.


 In Palestinian Arabic, _that_ is only used to mean "kindergarten" or "pre-school"  (unless there's a regional usage I'm not aware of).


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## Qcumber

*Bustaan* "pot garden, orchard" is one of the first words I learned in Classical Arabic, as well as *bustaanii* "gardener";
*rauDa(t)* came later as "flower garden".
About the latter Kazimirsky (1860) mentions an amusing expression:
2aHsan min baiDa(t) fii rauDa(t) "more beautiful than an egg in a flower garden" meaning "very beautiful".


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## clevermizo

Is there a distinction in meaning between روضة and بستان? If so, what is it?

Thanks as usual.


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## Mahaodeh

I believe it does, البستان is a tree garden, mostly fruitful. روضة is grass and flowers, حديقة is any garden جنينة is trees, grass and flowers, and حائط is a garden enclosed by a wall.


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## suma

bustaan also means like orchard, apple orchard, orange grove, etc.


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## clevermizo

Thanks all!


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## ayed

To add something to this post..
* Bustaan =  it is usually an inclosed place "garden" has fruit trees..and man often take care of .
* Rawdhah:it is an open place"meadow" has green herbs and grasses usually short.

If you google them "baustaan"and Rawdhah" ,you'd see the difference..
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Plural rawdhah is "Riyadh"--the capital of Saudi Arabia


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## elroy

Mahaodeh said:


> [...] and حائط is a garden enclosed by a wall.


 حائط refers to the actual garden and not just the wall?


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## WadiH

I think in the strict sense, the difference between a روضة and a بستان is that a بستان is made-made, i.e. like a garden or park.  A روضة on the other hand is a meadow that appears naturally in the desert after the rain season.  Usually, a روضة appears in a low-lying area in the desert where the rain water has accumulated and seeped through the earth, creating a grassy meadow in the spring (but otherwise dry and dessicated the rest of the year).


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## Mahaodeh

elroy said:


> حائط refers to the actual garden and not just the wall?


 
I had the exact same reaction when I first found out, actually using حائط as a wall came from the wall of the enclosed garden. The original name حائط is because the garden is محاطة بجدار. In fus7a, a wall is جدار not حائط.


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## WadiH

Mahaodeh said:


> I had the exact same reaction when I first found out, actually using حائط as a wall came from the wall of the enclosed garden. The original name حائط is because the garden is محاطة بجدار. In fus7a, a wall is جدار not حائط.


 
While I agree that حائط can mean a garden enclosed by a wall, I'm not sure that means the original meaning of حائط was "garden" and not "wall."  It seems the other way around for me.  That's why they say أحاط بكل شيء علما and the Atlantic Ocean was known as البحر المحيط because it "enclosed" the rest of the world.


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## bearded

I would like to know whether bustaan originally meant orchard or garden, since in dictionaries I find contradictory definitions.  Or did this word have a double meaning from the very start ? Thank you in advance.


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