Learn ArabicB1 › لِيف

لِيف

fiber (plant fiber, such as palm fiber or loofah, used for scrubbing or making rope) /liːf/

nounB1#2385 most common

Also: loofah, coir

Example sentences

هَذَا اللِّيفُ ناعِمٌ.
This loofah is soft.
أَشْتَرِي لِيفًا لِلْحَمّامِ.
I am buying a loofah for the bathroom.
نَسْتَخْدِمُ اللِّيفَ لِتَنْظِيفِ الجِسْمِ عِنْدَ الاسْتِحْمامِ.
We use a fiber scrubber to clean the body while bathing.
يُصْنَعُ الحَبْلُ مِنْ لِيفِ النَّخْلِ.
Rope is made from palm fiber.
تَحْتَوِي قِشْرَةُ جَوْزِ الهِنْدِ عَلَى أَلْيافٍ قَوِيَّةٍ تُسْتَخْدَمُ فِي صِناعَةِ الحِبالِ.
The coconut husk contains strong fibers used in making ropes.
يُعَدُّ لِيفُ النَّخِيلِ مِنَ المَوادِّ الطَّبِيعِيَّةِ الَّتِي اسْتُخْدِمَتْ تارِيخِيًّا فِي حِياكَةِ الحِبالِ وَصِناعَةِ الفُرُشِ.
Palm fiber is one of the natural materials that was historically used to weave rope and make mattresses.

Declension

CaseSingularPlural
Nominativeلِيفٌأَلْيَافٌ
Genitiveلِيفٍأَلْيَافٍ
Accusativeلِيفًاأَلْيَافًا
Vocativeلِيفُأَلْيَافُ

Word family

ليفةa single fiber; a bath loofah/scrubber
أَلْيَافfibers (general or technical, e.g. dietary or synthetic fibers)
تَلْيِيفfibrosis (as in تليف الكبد, liver fibrosis)
مُتَلَيِّفfibrotic, turned fibrous

Etymology

لِيف comes from the Semitic root ل-ي-ف, which carries the sense of a strand or fibrous strand. In Classical Arabic it first named the fibrous husk that wraps the trunk of the date palm. Speakers later extended it to any similar plant fiber, including the loofah used for washing and the coir used for rope.

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