Learn Arabic › B1 › عَصِيب
عَصِيب
critical /ʕaˈsˤiːb/
adjectiveB1#2702 most common
Also: difficult, tense, trying
Example sentences
هذا يومٌ عَصِيبٌ.
This is a hard day.
نمرّ بوقتٍ عَصِيبٍ هذه الأيام.
We are going through a difficult time these days.
عاشت العائلة أياماً عَصِيبة بعد الحادث.
The family lived through difficult days after the accident.
كانت المفاوضات عَصِيبة واستمرت حتى الفجر.
The negotiations were tense and lasted until dawn.
مرّ الاقتصاد الوطني بظروف عَصِيبة خلال الأزمة المالية.
The national economy went through critical circumstances during the financial crisis.
رغم اللحظات العَصِيبة التي مرّ بها الفريق الطبي، تمكّنوا من إنقاذ المريض في اللحظة الأخيرة.
Despite the tense moments the medical team went through, they managed to save the patient at the last moment.
Declension
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | عَصِيبٌ | عَصِيبُونَ |
| Genitive | عَصِيبٍ | عَصِيبِينَ |
| Accusative | عَصِيباً | عَصِيبِينَ |
| Vocative | يا عَصِيبُ | يا عَصِيبُونَ |
Word family
عَصَب (ʿaṣab)nerve, sinew
عِصَابة (ʿiṣāba)band, bandage, gang
عَصَبِيّ (ʿaṣabī)nervous, neural
مَعْصُوب (maʿṣūb)bound, bandaged, blindfolded
تَعَصُّب (taʿaṣṣub)fanaticism, bias
Etymology
The word comes from the Semitic root ʿ-ṣ-b, whose core sense is to bind or wrap something tightly. From this root Arabic gets ʿaṣab (nerve, sinew) and ʿiṣāba (band, bandage). The adjective ʿaṣīb, built on the faʿīl pattern, extended that image of tight binding to a metaphor of strain: a day or situation so taut it feels wound like a bandage. This is a native Semitic root, not an Indo-European one.
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