جَفَاءٌcurtness

Example sentences

• فَأَجَابَتْنِي بِجَوَابٍ فِيهِ جَفَاءٌ،

  She answered me with a curt reply.

  جَفَاءٌ — curtness. This noun is the thing said to be 'in' the reply, and it works as the delayed subject of that little describing clause: 'a reply in which there was harshness'. Because the prepositional phrase came first, this subject follows it and stands in the plain subject form, naming what the curt answer contained.

  From: A Night of Reckoning →