# woman, women امرأة - المرأة - نساء



## jmt356

MSA: woman

Is “woman” in MSA مَرْأَة, as written on Wikipedia (http://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/مرأة) or إِمْرَأَة, as written on VerbAce Pro and WordReference (http://www.wordreference.com/enar/woman)?

Thank you


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## ahmedcowon

Both مرأة and امرأة are correct (the plural is نساء or نسوة)


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## barkoosh

but مرأة is only used with ال, that is, المرأة. Without ال, it should be امرأة. It's one of the exceptions.


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## Fabiola79

مرحبا

When do you use مرأة mAr'a and when إمرأة Imra'a for 'woman' ?
Are these 2 words completely interchangeable ?

شكرا جزيلا على جوابك


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## Finland

Hello!

*Normally* in Modern Standard Arabic the word is إمرأة, and with the article becomes المرأة (not الإمرأة).

HTH
S


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## dkarjala

To be precise, I believe that the first _alif _is a _waSla_, i.e. it should be اِمرأة not *إمرأة. Like اسم, this word became unpronounceable in the formal register of Arabic. The masculine form امرؤ/امرأ/امرء also alternates with definite المرء in Classical Arabic. As with اسم and the _maSdar_ of forms 7-10, putting the _hamza_ is actually incorrect as it will result in improper pronunciation with a preceding vowel. 

رأيتُ امرأة = _ra'aytu mra'a_


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## dkarjala

Fabiola79 said:


> I can't understand what you're talking about.
> What is the masculine form of امرأة ? What does such a phrase mean ?



اِمرأة NOT إمرأة. The _alif _is *silent *after a vowel (just like the _alif_ in ال), so you mustn't write a _hamza_ below it.

The word امرأ means 'man'!


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## Moseley

Why does امرأة and النساء seem so different?
They both refer to female gender in plural and single form yet the are different terms why?


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## Hemza

Because امراة means "woman" while النساء means "the feminine gender". There is another word which is الحريم which gave "harem".


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## eastren

In here i add a comment (النساء) is used for single form and its plural form is this(النسوة). Whereas i think (امراة) is used for both forms singular and plural.


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## Moseley

Does one have a possible foreign origin?


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## tounsi51

Hemza said:


> Because امراة means "woman" while النساء means "the feminine gender". There is another word which is الحريم which gave "harem".



But حرمة means more wife than woman right?


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## Qureshpor

niswah, niswaan and nisaa2 all mean "women". imra2ah is "woman" and it does not have a plural.


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## Hemza

tounsi51 said:


> But حرمة means more wife than woman right?



Yes, but "الحريم" means "women" as the feminine gender. At least, that's how we used it in 7ejazi dialect, in MSA, I don't know if is the meaning is different.


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## tounsi51

yeah also in the UAE they say 7arem/7urma as woman. I have seen in Tunisia in many marriage party invitations writing for example السيد فلان و حرمته


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## dkarjala

Moseley said:


> Does one have a possible foreign origin?



They are different words that have joined forces to form a singular-plural relationship. The root n-s-w and it's various forms is attested in much of Semitic as plurals for 'woman' as well as much of Afroasiatic in general. The word root m-r-' and it's forms is also attested in these groups in meanings from 'son' to 'man' to 'lord', etc. In any case, they look different because they are different, and very old, words.


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## analeeh

As dkarjala says, they were presumably separate at one point, but like 'person' and 'people' in English, the words became attached to one another. They are both Semitic in origin, and long, long-established in the language.


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## Hemza

dkarjala said:


> They are different words that have joined forces to form a singular-plural relationship. The root n-s-w and it's various forms is attested in much of Semitic as plurals for 'woman' as well as much of Afroasiatic in general. The word root m-r-' and it's forms is also attested in these groups in meanings from 'son' to 'man' to 'lord', etc. In any case, they look different because they are different, and very old, words.



Not all Afro-asiatic languages. I just take the example of Berber, it doesn't contain those roots. I forgot how we say, but it's not like that. So I think it's rather a semitic feature (including Ethiopian may be).


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## dkarjala

I said _much_ of Afroasiatic for a reason. In reality, the root mr/m'r/mr' appears in Semitic, Egyptian, Chadic, Cushitic _and _Omotic meaning 'person' or 'child'. You're right, it's not retained in Berber - but it's obviously not a Semitic innovation.

I didn't know you knew Berber - that's really cool. I hope you can add a lot more Berber stuff to our discussions here.


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## Moseley

I wonder how many polyglots we have in our midsts....


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## Hemza

dkarjala said:


> I said _much_ of Afroasiatic for a reason. In reality, the root mr/m'r/mr' appears in Semitic, Egyptian, Chadic, Cushitic _and _Omotic meaning 'person' or 'child'. You're right, it's not retained in Berber - but it's obviously not a Semitic innovation.
> 
> I didn't know you knew Berber - that's really cool. I hope you can add a lot more Berber stuff to our discussions here.



Sorry for my misunderstood. No, unfortunately, I don't speak it, but I know a little of vocabulary, words of the central Moroccan dialect.


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## إسكندراني

For 'women'
نساء
نسوة
امرأة
are used in the Qur'an. I do not know why the words are so different, but I don't think it's considered to be of foreign origin.
حرم، حرمة، حريم is not, and we discussed it in it's own thread.


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## Sandysmith2013

Hello everyone, I am doing research on the word *aimra'a, nisaa' and *linguistic relativity  shapes people's views on the word.  Take for example the word harem, which stems from the root word haram (i.e. forbidden). 

It seems to me that the word nisaa' stems from the word nisa (meaning forget). Is that even possible?


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## Mahaodeh

Sandysmith2013 said:


> It seems to me that the word nisaa' stems from the word nisa (meaning forget). Is that even possible?



Or, it could be that نساء is the feminine form of ناس, and there also may be a possible relation with إنسان or إنس. I don't know about the word نساء in particular but I read once (don't remember where) that the name for people/humans comes from الأُنْس as humans need the company of other humans and do not prefer to be alone.


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## Sandysmith2013

Thanks for your reply. I completely forgot about the word inSan (human) stemming from the word Nessa (forgetting).


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## Mahaodeh

Sandysmith2013 said:


> I completely forgot about the word inSan (human) stemming from the word Nessa (forgetting).



It's true that people often say that (I believe after Ibn Abbas but I'm not sure - he was not a linguist), but according to dictionaries ناس - إنسان - إنس are all from the same root: أ ن س. They are all derived from الأُنْس = socialness, the tendency to keep company with others, opposite of wild. إنسان is of the form فِعْلان

Looking it up in dictionaries, نساء is in a separate root. It may be the origin of the word, but I feel that there is a possibility that originally it may have been the same root as ناس but since the form is not very recognisable by classical dictionaries the authors may have assumed that it's a different root. I don't know though, this is just a gut feeling that may be wrong.

Personally, I find that the relation to الأنس (al-Uns) makes more sense than the relation to النسيان (al-nisyaan) = forgetting (of the root ن س ي). True, since two of the letters of the root are the same and the first in the ' n s and last in n s y can be changed to long vowels, it may have a resemblance but I believe that this is where it ends.  The relation is similar to the relation of أ ب ق to ب ق ي or the relation between أ س ل and س ل ى and س أ ل - you can find words that 'seem' related, but are not..

Of course, etymology is not my speciality so I reserve the right to be wrong . It would be interesting to see what you find in your research are though. Keep us updated.


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