Arabic word sheet
سَنَةٌ
Year
- Type
- noun
- Root
- س ن و
Meaning and usage
Year
A span of twelve months, reckoned by the sun or by the moon. It is used for age, dates and the length of anything.
دَرَسَ سَامِي فِي الْجَامِعَةِ سَنَةً.
Sāmī studied at the university for a year.
Year of drought
Used on its own, the word means in the old language a hard year without rain or harvest, and the dearth itself.
أَصَابَتِ الْقَرْيَةَ سَنَةٌ شَدِيدَةٌ.
A hard year of drought struck the village.
Plural
سَنَوَاتٌ / سِنُونَ
Word family
What the root means س ن و
The article opens on the idea of watering land and drawing water, said also of the animal that walks round the well. One early authority derives the year from it, seen as one full round of the sun; the same root gives the animal that draws water and hiring someone by the year.
to water land, to draw water
سَنَا
animal that draws water from a well
سَانِيَةٌ
hiring by the year
مُسَانَاةٌ
Synonyms
year
عَامٌ
The two are used for each other, but early authors saw in it rather the year of plenty, where the headword suggested the difficult year.
a full year
حَوْلٌ
Means one whole year gone round from a given moment, a full cycle, rather than the calendar year.