Arabic word sheet
غَابِرٌ
Remaining, staying behind
- Type
- adjective
- Root
- غ ب ر
Meaning and usage
Remaining, staying behind
It is said of what stays when the rest has gone: a person left in place after the others have departed, or the part of a thing that is still there. This is the most usual sense in the classical language.
Past, bygone
It is said, conversely, of what has gone by and is no more. It is used above all of olden times, and this is the most frequent sense today.
قَرَأَتْ لَيْلَى كِتَابًا عَنِ الْعُصُورِ الْغَابِرَةِ.
Layla read a book about bygone ages.
Word family
What the root means غ ب ر
The basic verb of the root means to remain, to last, and also, the other way round, to pass and go away. From it come what remains and what is bygone, and the remnant of a thing; the same family holds the words for dust and for what is covered in it.
to remain; to pass away
غَبَرَ
remnant
غُبْرٌ
dust
غُبَارٌ
to cover with dust
غَبَّرَ
to become dusty
اِغْبَرَّ
dust-coloured
أَغْبَرُ
Synonyms
remaining
بَاقٍ
It is the everyday word for what remains; it never carries the opposite sense of something past.
past
مَاضٍ
It matches only the sense of something bygone; it is the ordinary word for the past, without the shade of very old times.