فَقْرٌ need in Arabic
فَقْرٌ is how you say “need” in Arabic.
Root ف ق ر f-q-r. noun (verbal noun / maṣdar). faqr.
Arabic
English
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Meaning of need in Arabic
- poverty, need, neediness the common abstract sense, the state opposite of sufficiency/wealth; tied to فَقِير 'a poor, needy person'.
- the act of digging (the ground, or a well) an older concrete sense recorded as the verbal noun of فَقَرَ 'he dug'.
- boring or perforating, as of beads for stringing also recorded for this same verbal noun.
Example sentence
فَيرى فِي ذَلِك فقره إِلَى ربّه، وظلمه فِي نَفسه
Thus, he sees in that his need for his Lord, and his injustice to himself.
فَقْرَهُ his need
faqr means 'poverty, need'; the ending '-hu' adds 'his' — 'his need'; the object of 'sees'.
The English is machine-translated.
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How it is used
فَقْرٌ is the standard abstract noun for poverty or lack, standing opposite غِنًى 'wealth' and closely tied to فَقِير 'poor, needy' (from أَفْقَرَ 'he rendered him فَقِير'). The same verbal noun also carries older, concrete senses recorded by the lexicographers — digging, boring, or making an incision — actions of breaking or opening something, echoed in related words like فَاقِرَةٌ 'a back-breaking calamity' and فَقَارٌ 'vertebrae'.
Words from the same root
- فَقِيرٌ a poor, needy person
- فَقَارٌ the vertebrae, the backbone
- فَاقِرَةٌ a crushing calamity (lit. one that 'breaks the vertebrae')
- أَفْقَرَ to render someone poor, needy (also: to lend one's mount for riding)
- تَفَاقَرَ to feign the lowliness of poverty, to act humbly before others
- اِفْتَقَرَ to cleave, slit, or rend; to open
More example sentences
وَلَا يمل من خدمته مع حاجته وفقره إِلَيْهِ،
And that he does not tire of serving Him, despite his need and poverty before Him,
وَفَقْرِهِ and poverty
wa- = 'and'; faqr means 'poverty'; the ending '-hi' adds 'his' — 'and his poverty'.
وغناك قبل فقرك،
And your wealth before your poverty.
فَقْرِكَ your poverty
A noun 'poverty' with an attached 'your' fused on, completing the 'before' phrase: before your poverty. The possessor rides on the suffix; it names the deadline for using wealth.
وَهُوَ الْفَقْرُ اللَّازِمُ فَيَرُدُّكَ عَنْ غِنَى الْكِفَايَةِ
And it is persistent poverty that turns you away from the wealth of sufficiency.
الْفَقْرُ the poverty
The noun 'poverty', made definite by al- ('the'), here the thing the pronoun is equated with in 'and it is the poverty...'. As the second half of a verbless equation it stands in the plain nominative ending, with no verb linking it to the 'it'.
Common questions
- How do you say "need" in Arabic?
- فَقْرٌ (faqr).
- What is the root of فَقْرٌ and what other words come from it?
- It comes from the triliteral root ف ق ر (f-q-r), which also gives فَقِير 'poor, needy person' and فَقَار 'vertebrae, backbone'.
Related words
Definitions summarised from Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (E. W. Lane, 1863–1893).