Classical Arabic - English Dictionary

بَكِمَ aor. ـَ {يَبْكَمُ}, (Mṣb, Ḳ,) inf. n. بَكَمٌ, (Ṣ, Ḳ,) He was أَخْرَسٌ [meaning dumb, either by natural conformation or from inability to find words to express what he would say]; (Ṣ, Mṣb, Ḳ;*) بَكَمٌ being syn. with خَرَسٌ, as is also بَكَامَةٌ [accord. to rule an inf. n. of بَكُمَ, which may also have the same signification as بَكِمَ, as well as another to be explained below]: (Ḳ:) or he had not understanding to reply, (T, Mṣb, TA,) nor ability to frame speech well, (T, TA,) though possessing the faculty of speech: [see أَبْكَمُ:] (T, Mṣb, TA:) or he was dumb, and moreover unable to find words to express what he would say, and weak in understanding, silly, or stupid: (Ḳ:) or he was dumb and deaf and blind by birth. (Th, Ḳ.)

بَكُمَ, aor. ـُ {يَبْكُمُ}, (inf. n. بَكَامَةٌ, TḲ,) He refrained, (Lth, Ḳ) or, as some say, broke off, or ceased, (TA,) from speaking, intentionally, (Lth, Ḳ, TA,) or from ignorance. (Lth, TA.)

‡ He cut himself off, or desisted, from marriage, or sexual intercourse, either from ignorance or intentionally. (Ḳ, TA.)

تبكّم عَلَيْهِ الكَلَامُ His speech was, or became, impeded; he was unable to speak freely. (A, Ḳ.)

بَكِيمٌ: see what follows, in two places.

أَبْكَمٌ (T, Ṣ, Mṣb, Ḳ, &c.) andبَكِيمٌ↓ (Ṣ, Ḳ) i. q. أَخْرَسُ [meaning Dumb, either by natural conformation or from inability to find words to express what he would say]: (Ṣ, Mṣb, Ḳ:) or not having understanding to reply, (IAạr, T, Mṣb, TA,) nor ability to frame speech well, (T, TA,) though possessing the faculty of speech; whereas اخرس signifies speechless, or destitute of the faculty of speech, by natural conformation, (T, Mṣb, TA,) like the beast that lacks the faculty of articulation; (T, TA;) unable to find words to express what he would say; unable to reply: (AZ, TA:) or dumb by natural conformation: (IAth, TA:) fem. بَكْمَآءُ: (TA:) pl. بُكْمٌ (Mṣb, Ḳ) and بُكْمَانٌ, (Ḳ,) both pls. of أَبْكَمُ, like as صُمٌّ and صُمَّانٌ are pls. of أَصَمُّ; and the pl. ofبَكِيمٌ↓ is أَبْكَامٌ. (TA.) In the Ḳur ii. 166, بُكْمٌ means persons in the condition of him who has been born dumb: or, as some say, deprived of their intellects: (Zj, TA:) or ignorant and ignoble; because not profiting much by the faculty of speech, so that they are as though they had been deprived of it. (IAth, TA.) The phrase فِتْنَةٌ صَمَّآءُ بَكْمَآءُ عَمْيَآءُ, occurring in a trad., [lit.] meaning [A sedition, or the like,] deaf, dumb, blind, applies to a فتنة that does not withdraw, or become removed: or, as some say, to one which, by reason of the confusion attending it, and the perishing of the sound and the sick therein, is likened to the deaf and dumb and blind who does not pursue the right course to a thing, but goes at random like the weak-sighted she-camel. (TA.)