Learn ArabicA2 › قَصِير

قَصِير

short /qaˈsˤiːr/

adjectiveA2#891 most common

Also: brief, low (of height), short in stature

Example sentences

هَذَا قَمِيصٌ قَصِيرٌ.
This is a short shirt.
شَعْرُهَا قَصِيرٌ جِدًّا.
Her hair is very short.
قَرَأْتُ قِصَّةً قَصِيرَةً أَمْسِ.
I read a short story yesterday.
رَغْمَ أَنَّهُ قَصِيرُ الْقَامَةِ، فَإِنَّهُ بَارِعٌ فِي كُرَةِ السَّلَّةِ.
Although he is short in stature, he is skilled at basketball.
لَمْ يَبْقَ أَمَامَنَا سِوَى وَقْتٍ قَصِيرٍ قَبْلَ أَنْ يُغْلِقَ الْمَتْجَرُ.
Only a short time remained before the shop closed.
اِخْتَصَرَ الْكَاتِبُ رِوَايَتَهُ الطَّوِيلَةَ فِي نَصٍّ قَصِيرٍ مُكَثَّفٍ لَا تَشُوبُهُ زِيَادَةٌ.
The writer condensed his long novel into a short, dense text with no excess.

Declension

CaseSingularPlural
Nominativeقَصِيرٌقِصَارٌ
Genitiveقَصِيرٍقِصَارٍ
Accusativeقَصِيرًاقِصَارًا
Vocativeيَا قَصِيرُيَا قِصَارُ

Word family

قِصَر (qiṣar)shortness, brevity
قَصَّرَ (qaṣṣara)to shorten; to fall short
أَقْصَر (aqṣar)shorter, shortest
قَصِيرَة (qaṣīra)short (feminine)
اِقْتَصَرَ (iqtaṣara)to confine or limit oneself to

Etymology

قَصِير comes from the Semitic root q-ṣ-r, which carries the sense of being short or falling short. It follows the faʿīl adjective pattern, common in Arabic for stable qualities. The same root yields words for shortening, restricting, and the palace (a walled, enclosed space). Hebrew and Aramaic keep close cognates with the same core meaning.

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