هيهات

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Arabic

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Verb

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هَيْهَاتَ (hayhāta)

  1. it is far; it is impossible; no way
    هَيْهَاتَ مِنَّا الذِّلَّةُ
    hayhāta minnā ḏ-ḏillatu
    It is far from possible for us to be in the condition of humiliating dependence. (A Refusal to Surrender)
    • 609–632 CE, Qur'an, 23:36:
      هَيْهَاتَ هَيْهَاتَ لِمَا تُوعَدُونَ
      hayhāta hayhāta limā tūʕadūna
      Far beyond far it is (far-fetched), for what you are set to expect.
    • (Can we date this quote?), (Please provide the book title or journal name):
      فَهَيْهَاتَ هَيْهَاتَ الْعَقِيقُ وَمَنْ بِهِ / وَهَيْهَاتَ خِلٌّ بِالْعَقِيقِ نُوَاصِلُهْ
      fahayhāta hayhāta al-ʕaqīqu waman bihi / wahayhāta ḵillun bi-l-ʕaqīqi nuwāṣiluh
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Usage notes

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This word belongs to a special group of words known in Arabic as أَسْمَاء أَفْعَال (ʔasmāʔ ʔafʕāl), plural of اِسْم فِعْل (ism fiʕl), literally noun verbs. They act grammatically as nouns more than verbs, but carry the function of a verb. They do not conjugate, but each word signify a grammatical time on its own, in this case the past/perfective. However, they are different from nouns in that they do not receive declensions and inflections (are in the مَبْنِي (mabnī) state), and some (but not all) do not allow possessive enclitics.