''Wāw rubba'' () is a usage of the
Arabic
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
word ''wa'' (). Whereas the usual use of ''wa'' is as a conjunction (meaning 'and'), the ''wāw rubba'' is used, particularly in poetry, in an exclamatory fashion to introduce a new subject. In English, it is sometimes known as the and'' of asseveration'.
Usage
''Wāw rubba'' is used to introduce a noun followed by a verb phrase. The noun in such a construction is always in the
genitive case
In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive ca ...
. Useful English translations include 'many a...', 'I remember...', 'I think of...', 'Oh, that...!'
The construction is often used to mark a transition within a poem.
Examples
In his ''
muʿallaqa'',
Imruʾ al-Qays says:
['wāw rubba', in Marlé Hammond, ''A Dictionary of Arabic Literary Terms and Devices'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018) .]
This riddle on the
touchstone likewise begins with ''wāw rubba'', here rendered simply as 'someone':
Origin of name
''Wāw rubba'' takes its name from the letter ''
wāw
Waw ( "hook") is the sixth letter of the Semitic abjads, including
Phoenician ''wāw'' 𐤅,
Aramaic ''waw'' 𐡅,
Hebrew ''vav'' ,
Syriac ''waw'' ܘ
and Arabic ''wāw'' (sixth in abjadi order; 27th in modern Arabic order). It is al ...
'', with which the word ''wa'' ('and') is written, and the word ''rubba'' (), meaning 'many'; thus the phrase ''wāw rubba'' means 'the ''wāw'' of many, the ''wāw'' equivalent in meaning to ''rubba''
'. This name arises from the supposition that the ''wāw'' functions like the word ''rubba'', and moreover that this usage originated through phrases like ''wa-rubba rajulin'' (, 'and many a man') from which the word ''rubba'' was elided. However, in practice ''wāw rubba'' does not necessarily denote a multitude, nor is there evidence for extensive use of the sequence ''wa-rubba'' as opposed to ''rubba'' appearing on its own. While still conventional, then, the term ''wāw rubba'' can be viewed as a
misnomer
A misnomer is a name that is incorrectly or unsuitably applied. Misnomers often arise because something was named long before its correct nature was known, or because an earlier form of something has been replaced by a later form to which the nam ...
.
[W. Wright, ''A Grammar of the Arabic Language, Translated from the German Tongue and Edited with Numerous Additions and Corrections'', 3rd edn by W. Robertson Smith and M. J. de Goeje, 2 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1933 epr. Beirut: Librairie de Liban, 1996.]
References
{{reflist
Arabic words and phrases
Arabic grammar