خير

From Arabic خَيْر (ḵayr).

• IPA^(key): /xiːr/

خير (ḵīr) m

1. goodness, good

• IPA^(key): /xajr/

• Moroccan: IPA^(key): /xajr/, /xiːr/
• Egyptian: IPA^(key): /xiːr/, /xeːr/
• Kuwaiti: IPA^(key): /xeːr/
• Jordanian: IPA^(key): /xeːr/

خَيْر • (ḵayr) m (plural خِيَار (ḵiyār) or خُيُور (ḵuyūr) or أَخْيَار (ʔaḵyār))

1. goodness, good

   بِخَيْرٍ ― biḵayrin ― well

   • 609–632 CE, Qur'an, 17:11:

     وَيَدْعُ ٱلْإِنْسَانُ بِٱلشَّرِّ دُعَاءَهُ بِٱلْخَيْرِ

     wayadʕu l-ʔinsānu bi-š-šarri duʕāʔahū bi-l-ḵayri

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 609–632 CE, Qur'an, 99:7-8:

     فَمَنْ يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ خَيْرًا يَرَهُ / وَمَنْ يَعْمَلْ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ شَرًّا يَرَهُ

     fa-man yaʕmal miṯqāla ḏarratin ḵayran yarahu / wa-man yaʕmal miṯqāla ḏarratin šarran yarahu

     So whoever does an atom's weight of good will see it, / And whoever does an atom's weight of evil will see it.

2. charity; welfare
3. (archaic) wealth; money
   • 609–632 CE, Qur'an, 100:8:

     وَإِنَّهُ لِحُبِّ ٱلْخَيْرِ لَشَدِيدٌ

     waʔinnahu liḥubbi l-ḵayri lašadīdun

     And indeed he is, in love of wealth, intense.

• شَرّ (šarr)

• صَبَاحُ ٱلْخَيْرِ (ṣabāḥu l-ḵayri)
• تُصْبِحُ عَلَى خَيْرٍ (tuṣbiḥu ʕalā ḵayrin)
• بِخَيْرٍ (biḵayrin)
• مَسَاءُ ٱلْخَيْرِ (masāʔu l-ḵayri)

خَيَّرَ • (ḵayyara) II (non-past يُخَيِّرُ (yuḵayyiru), verbal noun تَخْيِير (taḵyīr))

1. to grant a choice, to let choose

خَيْر • (ḵayr)

1. better; best

   Antonym: شَرّ (šarr)

   الصَّلاةُ خَيْرٌ مِن الْنَّوْمِ

   aṣ-ṣalātu ḵayrun min al-nnawmi

   Prayer is better than sleep.

   لَسْتُ خَيْرًا مِن الطَّالِبِ.

   lastu ḵayran min aṭ-ṭālibi.

   I am not better than the student.

• رَهَبُوتٌ خَيْرٌ لَكَ مِنْ رَحَمُوتٍ (rahabūtun ḵayrun laka min raḥamūtin)

خَيِّر • (ḵayyir) (feminine خَيِّرَة (ḵayyira), common plural أَخْيَار (ʔaḵyār) or خِيَار (ḵiyār), masculine plural خَيِّرُونَ (ḵayyirūna), feminine plural خَيِّرَات (ḵayyirāt), elative خَيْر (ḵayr))

1. beneficent, benevolent

• شِرِّير (širrīr)

• Dozy, Reinhart Pieter Anne (1881), “خير”, in Supplément aux dictionnaires arabes‎^[1] (in French), volume 1, Leiden: E. J. Brill, page 415
• Freytag, Georg (1830), “خير”, in Lexicon arabico-latinum praesertim ex Djeuharii Firuzabadiique et aliorum Arabum operibus adhibitis Golii quoque et aliorum libris confectum‎^[2] (in Latin), volume 1, Halle: C. A. Schwetschke, page 540
• Lane, Edward William (1863-1893), “خير”, in Arabic-English Lexicon, London: Williams & Norgate, pages 828–830.
• Steingass, Francis Joseph (1884), “خير”, in The Student's Arabic–English Dictionary‎^[3], London: W.H. Allen, page 347
• Wehr, Hans (1979), “خير”, in J. Milton Cowan, editor, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4th edition, Ithaca, NY: Spoken Language Services, →ISBN, page 308

From Arabic خَيْر (ḵayr).

• IPA^(key): /xeːr/, [xe̞ːr]

خير • (ḵēr) m (plural أَخْيَار (ʔaḵyār))

1. goodness, good
2. wealth

From Arabic خَيَّرَ (ḵayyara).

• IPA^(key): /xaj.jar/

خَيَّر • (ḵayyar) II (non-past يِخَيِّر (yiḵayyir))

1. to grant a choice, to let choose

Either a a causative of اختار (ḵtār, “to choose”) or, less likely, a denominal verb of خَيَار (ḵayār, “choice”).

For the former possibility, using form II as a causative of a verb not on form I is infrequent but not unheard of. Consider the following pairs:

• اشتغل (štaḡal, “to work”), شغّل (šaḡḡal, “to employ”)
• اشترى (štara, “to buy”), شرّى (šarra, “to make (s.o.) buy”)
• سَافَر (sāfar, “to travel”), سفّر (saffar, “to make (s.o.) travel”)

Each of the above form II verbs is old enough to originally have been derived by conventional routes, not from the other verb in the pair. However, synchronically, they are base-and-causative pairs in South Levantine Arabic. This possibly paved the way for خَيَّر (ḵayyar, “to make (s.o.) choose”) to analogically be derived from اختار (ḵtār, “to choose”).

• IPA^(key): /xaj.jar/, [ˈxaj.jar]

• Audio (al-Lidd):

  (file)

خيّر • (ḵayyar) II (present بخيّر (biḵayyir))

1. to make (someone) choose, to give (someone) a choice

   إذا لا سمح الله ارتكبت جريمة كبيرة وخيّروك إنّه يحكموا عليك بالإعدام أو السجن المؤبد، إيش بتختار؟

   ʔiza la samaḥ ʔaḷḷa rtakabt jarīme kbīre w-ḵayyarūk ʔinno yoḥkomu ʕalēk bil-ʔiʕdām ʔaw is-sijn li-mʔabbad, ʔēš btiḵtār?

   If, God forbid, you committed a major crime and you had to choose (literally: they made you choose) [between] them sentencing you to death or life imprisonment, what would you choose?

Semi-learned borrowing from Arabic خَيْر (ḵayr).

• IPA^(key): /xeːr/, [xeːr]

• Audio (Ramallah):

  (file)

خير • (ḵēr, ḵayr) m

1. goodness, good