فلك

Belonging to the root ف ل ك (f l k).

• IPA^(key): /fa.lak/

فَلَك • (falak) m (plural أَفْلَاك (ʔaflāk))

1. orbit, rounded course
   • 609–632 CE, Qur'an, 21:33:

     وَهُوَ ٱلَّذِي خَلَقَ ٱللَّيْلَ وَٱلنَّهَارَ وَٱلشَّمْسَ وَٱلْقَمَرَ كُلٌّ فِي فَلَكٍ يَسْبَحُونَ

     wahuwa llaḏī ḵalaqa l-layla wan-nahāra waš-šamsa wal-qamara kullun fī falakin yasbaḥūna

     And He is the One Who created the day and the night, the sun and the moon—each travelling in an orbit.

2. sphere
3. sky, outer space, universe, (figurative) heaven
4. orb
5. ellipsis of عِلْم الْفَلَك (ʕilm al-falak, “astronomy”)
6. (mythology) falak, ouroboros

This word is the ancient version of كون (which has been used in Arabic since the sixth century, unlike فلك), it means roughly Heaven, but unlike English, it isn’t limited to positive and divine worlds, as it can also describe the dwellings of demons and spirits. See also ذر (a spiritual universe in Islamic cosmogony, named as such because the offspring of Adam had come out of his back as if they were small ants).

• فَلَكِيّ (falakiyy, “astronomical”)

• → Amharic: ፈለክ (fäläk)
• → Azerbaijani: fələk
• → Ge'ez: ፈለክ (fäläk)
• → Malay: falak
  • Indonesian: falak
• → Persian: فلک (falak)
  • → Hindustani:

    Hindi: फ़लक (falak)

    Urdu: فلک (falak)

  • → Punjabi:

    Gurmukhi script: ਫ਼ਲਕ (falak)

    Shahmukhi script: فلک (falak)

• → Swahili: falaki
• → Turkish: felek
• → Uzbek: falak

• Leslau, Wolf (1987), Comparative Dictionary of Geʿez (Classical Ethiopic), Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, →ISBN, reprinted 1991, 1997 and 2006, page 159

Belonging to the root ف ل ك (f l k). Perhaps, however, unrelated to etymology 1 and instead from Ancient Greek ἐφόλκιον (ephólkion). Nonetheless, it might be linked to Hebrew פֶּלֶךְ (pélekh, “spindle”), the relationship being "being rounded".

• IPA^(key): /fulk/

فُلْك • (fulk) m or f (plural فُلْك (fulk))

1. (nautical) ship

   Synonym: سَفِينَة (safīna)

   • 609–632 CE, Qur'an, 2:164:

     إِنَّ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَاخْتِلَافِ اللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ وَالْفُلْكِ الَّتِي تَجْرِي فِي الْبَحْرِ بِمَا يَنفَعُ النَّاسَ وَمَا أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ مِن مَّاءٍ فَأَحْيَا بِهِ الْأَرْضَ بَعْدَ مَوْتِهَا وَبَثَّ فِيهَا مِن كُلِّ دَابَّةٍ وَتَصْرِيفِ الرِّيَاحِ وَالسَّحَابِ الْمُسَخَّرِ بَيْنَ السَّمَاءِ وَالْأَرْضِ لَآيَاتٍ لِّقَوْمٍ يَعْقِلُونَ

     Verily, in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of night and day, and the ships that float in the sea with what benefits the people; and what Allah sends down from the sky of water and gives life with it(the water) to the earth after its death, and sisters in it (the earth) of all the moving creatures; and (in the) controlling of the wind and the clouds suspended between the sky and the earth are indeed signs for people using sense.

   • 609–632 CE, Qur'an, 17:66:

     رَبُّكُمُ الَّذِي يُزْجِي لَكُمُ الْفُلْكَ فِي الْبَحْرِ لِتَبْتَغُوا مِن فَضْلِهِ إِنَّهُ كَانَ بِكُمْ رَحِيمًا

     rabbukumu llaḏī yuzjī lakumu al-fulka fī l-baḥri litabtaḡū min faḍlihi ʔinnahu kāna bikum raḥīman

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• → Swahili: falka (perhaps)

• Fraenkel, Siegmund (1886), Die aramäischen Fremdwörter im Arabischen (in German), Leiden: E. J. Brill, page 212
• Jeffery, Arthur (1938), The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qurʾān (Gaekwad’s Oriental Series; 79), Baroda: Oriental Institute, pages 229-230
• Vollers, Karl (1897), “Beiträge zur Kenntniss der lebenden arabischen Sprache in Aegypten”, in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft‎^[1] (in German), volume 51, page 300