Quran

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A holy book in Islam believed to be the direct word of God, imparted to the Prophet Muhammad through divine revelation
2. A foundational text of the Islamic faith that encompasses the core beliefs, laws, and ethical teachings for adherents
3. A sacred text in Islam that conveys the messages received by the Prophet Muhammad from God

Etymology: The word comes from Arabic "al-qurʔān", meaning "the recitation." It is the definite form of "qurʔān," a verbal noun from "qaraʔa," "to recite or read aloud." In other words, the name describes the text by its primary act: it was meant to be spoken aloud, not simply read silently on a page. The obsolete English spellings "Alcoran" and "Alkoran" show something telling about how the name entered European languages. They kept the Arabic definite article "al-" and then added another "the" in front of it, so the phrase was effectively "the the recitation" in English. Modern spellings dropped the article, but the earlier forms preserve the full Arabic construction. A related Syriac word, "qeryānā," meaning "reading" or "scripture," shows that the same root was used for sacred texts in neighboring Semitic languages, long before the Arabic form became standard.