وراء

Arabic

Etymology

From و ر ء (w-r-ʔ) or و ر ي (w-r-y). Lane's Dictionary, page 2933, "ورأ" meaning to push back behind something, to obscure or cover over; ultimately from "ورى", page 3052, meaning to make a fire, to set a blaze in front of you, behind its cover, to allude, to pretend or being ambiguous, to state something symbolically or to see another meaning besides the apparent.

Preposition

وَرَاءَ • (warāʔa)

1. behind
   • 1959, Naguib Mahfouz, chapter 3, in Children of Gebelawi:

     وَتَجْلِسُ فِي اللَّيْلِ وَرَاءَ النَّافِذَةِ

     wa-tajlisu fī l-layli warāʾa n-nāfiḏati

     And in the evening she sits behind the window.

Inflection

Inflected forms
Base form					وَرَاءَ (warāʔa)
Personal-pronoun- including forms	Singular		Dual	Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Common	Masculine	Feminine
First person	وَرَائِي (warāʔī)		وَرَاءَنَا (warāʔanā)
Second person	وَرَاءَكَ (warāʔaka)	وَرَاءَكِ (warāʔaki)	وَرَاءَكُمَا (warāʔakumā)	وَرَاءَكُمْ (warāʔakum)	وَرَاءَكُنَّ (warāʔakunna)
Third person	وَرَاءَهُ (warāʔahu)	وَرَاءَهَا (warāʔahā)	وَرَاءَهُمَا (warāʔahumā)	وَرَاءَهُمْ (warāʔahum)	وَرَاءَهُنَّ (warāʔahunna)

Descendants

• Maltese: wara