A Diachronic Analysis of the Word “Yagheen” in the Quran

Diachronic semantics focuses on the change and development of words during a period of time. The change of Quranic words in pre- and post-Quranic eras helps scholars reread their denotations and connotations. One of the essential words in the Quran is “yagheen” which is frequent in the terminology of ideas such as God, man, the unseen world, and intuition. This article follows the change of this word from ancient Semitic up to the Abbasid era in order to find the exact meaning of this word in Quranic definition system. The article contends that Semitic borrowed “yagheen” from Greek through Aramaic. This word had a wide range of applications in Semitic, but upon entering Arabic, it was assigned a specific and developed meaning. Then, it took a religious background in the Quran and entered human’s ideologies and thoughts. This word primarily meant “image,” “like” and “similar” and then it changed into a verb meaning “to draw” and “to display.” It was semantically narrowed after entering Arabic, losing the meanings “similarity” and “image” and being used as “removal of doubt.” Moreover, it acquired new derivatives in Arabic, which can be interpreted as semantic widening. The examination of the poetry of the Age of Ignorance shows that this word was rarely used, being only utilized as meaning “much awareness” which of course led to doubt. According to the books on “Vojouh and Nazaer,” “yagheen” is used as meaning “to affirm,” “death,” “observation,” “science” and “verity” in the Quran. However, considering of the context of Quranic verses, it can be concluded that it has only one meaning in the Quran and that is “removal of doubt,” and that its other meanings are either the result of yagheen or its causes. This word is more commonly used in post-Quranic eras as in many Arabic poems in which it has a religious usage and is expressive of people’s worldview.