Learn Arabic › B1 › دافِع
دافِع
motive /ˈdaː.fiʕ/
nounB1#2346 most common
Also: driving force, incentive, payer (as in دافع الضرائب, taxpayer)
Example sentences
ما هو دافِعُكَ؟
What is your motive?
لَيْسَ لَدَيَّ دافِعٌ لِلذَّهابِ اليَوْمَ.
I have no motive to go today.
الدافِعُ وَراءَ قَرارِهِ كانَ المالَ.
The motive behind his decision was money.
حاوَلَ الطَّبيبُ النَّفْسِيُّ فَهْمَ الدَّوافِعِ الخَفِيَّةِ لِسُلوكِهِ.
The psychologist tried to understand the hidden motives behind his behavior.
تَتَعَدَّدُ الدَّوافِعُ الَّتي تَدْفَعُ الشَّبابَ إلى الهِجْرَةِ.
The motives that drive young people to migrate are numerous.
يَرى عُلَماءُ النَّفْسِ أَنَّ الدَّافِعَ اللاواعِيَ غالِبًا ما يَكونُ أَقْوى مِنَ الدَّافِعِ الواعِي في تَوْجيهِ السُّلوكِ الإِنْسانِيِّ.
Psychologists believe that the unconscious motive is often stronger than the conscious motive in guiding human behavior.
Declension
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | دافِعٌ | دَوافِعُ |
| Genitive | دافِعٍ | دَوافِعَ |
| Accusative | دافِعًا | دَوافِعَ |
| Vocative | يا دافِعُ | يا دَوافِعُ |
Word family
دَفَعَto push, to pay, to repel
دَفْعَةa payment; a batch or pushدافِعِيَّةmotivation (as a quality or drive)
مُدافِعdefender (sports, law)اِنْدِفاعimpulsiveness, a rush forward
Etymology
دافِع comes from the Arabic triliteral root د-ف-ع (d-f-ʕ), the base of the verb دَفَعَ, which means to push, to pay, or to repel. دافِع is the active participle, built on the فاعِل pattern, and it literally names the one who pushes or the thing that pushes. Over time this concrete sense of pushing extended to the abstract sense of a motive, the force that pushes a person to act. As a Semitic root it has no Indo-European ancestry.
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