English

Noun

noun of place ‎(plural nouns of place)

1. (grammar): in Arabic and other Semitic languages, a noun formed from a root and expressing the sense of "place of X".

Usage notes

The Arabic noun of place is most often formed from the root of a verb and means “the place for doing x”, where x is the meaning of the verb. It is typically formed by placing the three consonants of a root in the pattern مَفْعَل ‎(mafʿal): for instance, the tool noun from the root ك ت ب ‎(k-t-b) is مَكْتَب ‎(maktab, “desk”). In the case of مَكْتَب ‎(maktab), the basic (Form I) verb from the root is كَتَبَ ‎(kataba, “to write”), so مَكْتَب ‎(maktab) literally means “place for writing”.

Other languages have similar formations, but without the same name, e.g. the -ārium ending in Latin or the -ιον ‎(-ion) and -εῖον ‎(-eîon) in Ancient Greek.

Translations

See also

• Appendix:Grammatical terminology