Learn Arabic › B1 › سَجْن
سَجْن
imprisonment /ˈsadʒn/
nounB1#1913 most common
Also: prison, jailing, incarceration
Example sentences
الرَّجُلُ في السَّجْن.
The man is in prison.
حُكِمَ عليه بالسَّجْنِ سنةً.
He was sentenced to prison for a year.
قضى خمسَ سنواتٍ في السَّجْن.
He spent five years in prison.
طالبت المنظمةُ بإلغاء عقوبةِ السَّجْنِ عن الصحفيين.
The organization demanded that imprisonment be dropped as a penalty for journalists.
رأى بعضُ الفلاسفةِ في السَّجْنِ اختباراً للإرادةِ الإنسانية.
Some philosophers saw imprisonment as a test of the human will.
لم يكن السَّجْنُ عنده جدراناً وقضباناً بقدرِ ما كان حِرماناً من الزمنِ ذاته.
For him, prison was not walls and bars so much as a deprivation of time itself.
Declension
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | سَجْنٌ | سُجُونٌ |
| Genitive | سَجْنٍ | سُجُونٍ |
| Accusative | سَجْناً | سُجُوناً |
| Vocative | يا سَجْنُ | يا سُجُونُ |
Word family
Etymology
The word comes from the Semitic triliteral root س-ج-ن (s-j-n), which carries the sense of shutting in or confining. It is well attested in Classical Arabic and the Quran, where the prophet Joseph is held in a سِجْن. The form سَجْن is the verbal noun of the base verb, naming the act itself. The root is Semitic and has no Indo-European ancestry.
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