Learn Arabic › B2 › جانِي
جانِي
perpetrator (of a crime) /ˈdʒaː.niː/
nounB2#3059 most common
Also: offender, culprit, harvester (of fruit, older sense)
Example sentences
مَن هُوَ الجاني؟
Who is the perpetrator?
الجاني هَرَبَ مِنَ الشُّرطَة.
The perpetrator fled from the police.
قَبَضَتِ الشُّرطَةُ عَلَى الجاني بَعدَ السَّرِقَة.
The police caught the perpetrator after the robbery.
اعتَرَفَ الجانِي بِجَريمَتِهِ أَمامَ المُحَقِّق.
The perpetrator confessed to his crime in front of the investigator.
يَنبَغي أَلّا يُفلِتَ الجُناةُ مِنَ العِقابِ مَهما كانَت ظُروفُهُم.
Perpetrators should not escape punishment, whatever their circumstances.
حُكِمَ عَلَى الجانِي بِالسِّجنِ المُؤَبَّدِ رَغمَ إِنكارِهِ المُتَكَرِّرِ لِلتُّهمَةِ المَنسوبَةِ إِلَيه.
The perpetrator was sentenced to life in prison despite his repeated denial of the charge against him.
Declension
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | جانٍ (الجاني) | جُناةٌ (الجُناة) |
| Genitive | جانٍ (الجاني) | جُناةٍ (الجُناة) |
| Accusative | جانِياً (الجانِيَ) | جُناةً (الجُناة) |
| Vocative | يا جانِي | يا جُناة |
Word family
جنىto commit (an offense); to pick or harvest fruit
جِنايةfelony, serious crime
مجني عليهvictim of a crime
جُناةperpetrators, offenders (plural)
جانِيةfemale perpetrator
Etymology
The word comes from the Arabic triliteral root ج-ن-ي (j-n-y), whose base verb جنى originally meant to pick or harvest fruit. Over time the same verb also came to mean to commit an offense, as if a wrongdoer were reaping the fruits of his own bad act. جانٍ is the active-participle form of this verb, so it literally means the one who does the harvesting or committing. Arabic is a Semitic language, not Indo-European, so it has no Proto-Indo-European root.
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