منذ

See also: مند

Arabic

Alternative forms

• مُذْ (muḏ)
• مِنْذُ (minḏu) — obsolete, poetic

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mun.ðu/

• Audio

  (file)

Preposition

مُنْذُ • (munḏu) [+genitive] or [+nominative]

1. denotes the time at which an occurrence started

   Synonym: مِنْ (min)

   رَأَيْتُكَ مُنْذُ يَوْمُ الْخَمِيسِ

   raʔaytuka munḏu yawmu l-ḵamīsi

   I have been seeing you since Thursday.

   رَأَيْتُكَ مُنْذُ يَوْمُ الْخَمِيسِ إِلَى يُوْمِ الْجُمُعَةِ

   raʔaytuka munḏu yawmu l-ḵamīsi ʔilā yuwmi l-jumuʕati

   I saw you from Thurday to Friday.

2. denotes an amount of time stretching from the past

   Synonym: مِنْ (min)

   لَا أَزَالُ أَرَاكَ مُنْذُ يَوْمَيْنِ

   lā ʔazālu ʔarāka munḏu yawmayni

   I have been seeing you for two days.

3. denotes the length of the period between a time or occurrence in the past and the present

   Synonym: مِن (min)

   • a. 544 CE, Imruʾ al-Qays, قِفَا نَبْكِ مِنْ ذِكْرَى حَبِيبٍ وَعِرْفَانِ (qifā nabki min ḏikrā ḥabībin waʕirfāni):

     قِفَا نَبْكِ مِنْ ذِكْرَى حَبِيبٍ وَعِرْفَانِ / وَرَسْمٍ عَفَتْ آيَاتُهُ مُنْذُ أَزْمَانِ

     qifā nabki min ḏikrā ḥabībin waʕirfānī / warasmin ʕafat ʔāyātuhu munḏu ʔazmānī

     Halt! Let us weep
     For the memory of
     Our ladylove
     And our memory of
     A rubble heap,
     Which faded away
     So long ago.

   • 21st century, Genndy Tartakovsky, سَامُورَاي جَاك (sāmūrāy jāk):

     منذ زمن طويل وفي أراضٍ بعيدة، أنا آكو، المتحوّل الشرير، وسيد الظلام، أطلقت شرًا رهيبًا جدًا، لكنّ محارب ساموراي الغبيّ، يحمل سيفًا سحريًّا، تقدّم ليواجهني.

     Long ago in a distant land, I, Aku, the evil shape-shifter and the Master of Darkness, unleashed an unspeakable evil, but the foolish samurai warrior, who wields a magic sword, stepped forth to oppose me.

4. denotes a time in the past

   Synonym: فِي (fī)

   رَأَيْتُكَ مُنْذُ زَمَنٍ بَعِيدٍ.

   raʔaytuka munḏu zamanin baʕīdin.

   I saw you back in a faraway time.

5. (obsolete) denotes a time in the present

   Synonym: فِي (fī)

   رَأَيْتُكَ مُنْذُ الْيَوْمُ

   raʔaytuka munḏu al-yawmu

   I have seen you today.

Descendants

• Maltese: mindu

Conjunction

مُنْذُ • (munḏu)

1. since

   مَا خَرَجَ مِنَ ٱلْبَيْتِ مُنْذُ نَزَلَ ٱلْمَطَرُ.

   mā ḵaraja mina l-bayti munḏu nazala l-maṭaru.

   He has not stepped out of the house since the rain set in.

   • 1925, “النشيد الوطني اللبناني [The Lebanese National Anthem]”, رشيد نخلة [Rashid Nakhle] (lyrics), وديع صبرا [Wadih Sabra] (music):

     اِسمُهُ عِزُّهُ مُنْذُ كَانَ الجُدُود

     ismuhu ʿizzuhu munḏu kāna l-judūd

     Its name has been its glory since the time of [our] ancestors.

     (literally, “Its name is its glory since [our] ancestors were.”)

Usage notes

• A noun that comes after مُنْذُ (munḏu) or مُذْ (muḏ) may occur in the nominative or in the genitive. A verb-initial clause that follows either of them may be introduced with أَنْ (ʔan), and a noun-initial clause may be introduced with أَنَّ (ʔanna).
• مُنْذُ (munḏu) and مُذْ (muḏ) share each other's meanings and case government, but whether they are interchangeable and whether the case of the following noun alters the meaning is disputed.
• مُنْذ (munḏ) and مُذ (muḏ) may denote a time or an occurrence in the past or an ongoing state of affairs. This oftentimes creates ambiguity when a length of time is specified, as in this construction:

رَأَيْتُكَ مُنْذُ يَوْمَانِ ― raʔaytuka munḏu yawmāni ― "I saw you two days ago" or "I have (or had) been seeing you for two days."

Because of this, many grammarians, like Ibn Hišām al-ʾAnṣārī, suggest that the word should govern the nominative in the first sense (ago) and that in the second sense (for) it should govern the genitive, so as to differentiate its two meanings.

• Neither مُنْذُ (munḏu) nor مُذْ (muḏ) is used with prepositional pronouns.
• Neither مُنْذُ (munḏu) nor مُذْ (muḏ) occurs in the Qur'an.

Descendants

• Maltese: mindu

Further reading

• Wehr, Hans (1979) “منذ”, in J. Milton Cowan, editor, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4th edition, Ithaca, NY: Spoken Language Services, →ISBN