Learn Arabic › A1 › ضَحِيَّة
ضَحِيَّة
victim /dˤaˈħij.ja/
nounA1#594 most common
Also: casualty, sacrificial offering, prey
Example sentences
هُوَ ضَحِيَّة.
He is a victim.
كَانَتْ هِيَ ضَحِيَّة حَادِثِ سَيَّارَة.
She was the victim of a car accident.
وَقَعَ الرَّجُلُ ضَحِيَّةً لِعَمَلِيَّةِ احْتِيَال.
The man fell victim to a fraud scheme.
تُقَدِّمُ الجَمْعِيَّةُ الدَّعْمَ لِكُلِّ ضَحِيَّةٍ مِنْ ضَحَايَا العُنْف.
The association provides support to every victim of violence.
لَا يَنْبَغِي أَنْ نُعَامِلَ الضَّحِيَّةَ كَأَنَّهَا هِيَ المُذْنِبَة.
We should not treat the victim as though she were the guilty party.
غَالِبًا مَا يُلْقَى اللَّوْمُ عَلَى الضَّحِيَّةِ بَدَلًا مِنَ الجَانِي، فِي ظَاهِرَةٍ يُسَمِّيهَا عُلَمَاءُ الِاجْتِمَاعِ لَوْمَ الضَّحِيَّة.
Blame is often placed on the victim rather than the perpetrator, in a phenomenon sociologists call victim-blaming.
Declension
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | ضَحِيَّةٌ | ضَحَايَا |
| Genitive | ضَحِيَّةٍ | ضَحَايَا |
| Accusative | ضَحِيَّةً | ضَحَايَا |
| Vocative | يَا ضَحِيَّةُ | يَا ضَحَايَا |
Word family
ضَحَّىto sacrifice
تَضْحِيَةsacrifice (the act); self-denial
أُضْحِيَةsacrificial animal at Eid
ضُحَىforenoon, late morning
ضَحَايَاvictims (plural)
Etymology
ضَحِيَّة comes from the Semitic root ḍ-ḥ-y, which links the forenoon (ḍuḥā) with the act of sacrifice. Animals were offered in the mid-morning, so the verb ḍaḥḥā meant 'to sacrifice,' and ḍaḥiyya named the sacrificial victim. In modern Arabic the religious sense has receded and the word means 'victim' in a broad sense: of a crime, an accident, or a war. The same root gives Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice.
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