Learn Arabic › B1 › حِمار
حِمار
donkey /ħɪˈmaːr/
nounB1#2775 most common
Also: ass, jackass (as an insult, informal)
Example sentences
هَذَا حِمارٌ.
This is a donkey.
عِنْدي حِمارٌ فِي المَزْرَعَةِ.
I have a donkey on the farm.
رَكِبَ الفَلّاحُ حِمارَهُ إِلَى السّوقِ.
The farmer rode his donkey to the market.
يُقالُ إِنَّ الحِمارَ حَيَوانٌ عَنيدٌ لكِنَّهُ قَوِيٌّ.
People say the donkey is a stubborn but strong animal.
كانَتِ القَريَةُ تَعْتَمِدُ عَلى الحَمِيرِ فِي نَقْلِ البَضائِعِ قَبْلَ ظُهورِ السَّيّاراتِ.
The village used to rely on donkeys to carry goods before cars appeared.
في الأَمْثالِ الشَّعْبِيَّةِ، يُشَبَّهُ العَنيدُ بِالحِمارِ الَّذي لا يَتَحَرَّكُ مَهْما حاوَلْتَ إِقْناعَهُ.
In folk proverbs, a stubborn person is compared to a donkey that will not move no matter how you try to persuade it.
Declension
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | حِمارٌ | حَمِيرٌ |
| Genitive | حِمارٍ | حَمِيرٍ |
| Accusative | حِماراً | حَمِيراً |
| Vocative | يا حِمارُ | يا حَمِيرُ |
Word family
حِمارdonkey (male)
أَتَانshe-donkey
حَمِيرdonkeys (plural)
حَمَّارdonkey driver, donkey herder
حِمار الوَحْشzebra (literally 'wild donkey')
Etymology
حِمار comes from the Semitic root ḥ-m-r. Arabic dictionaries also connect this root to the color red or reddish-brown, though the exact link between the color sense and the animal sense is debated among traditional lexicographers. The word is not a loan; related forms for donkey appear across the Semitic family, which points to a shared ancestor word rather than borrowing. Because Semitic and Indo-European are separate language families, there is no Proto-Indo-European root behind this word.
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