أول

• IPA^(key): /ʔaw.wal/

• Adjective:

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أَوَّل • (ʔawwal) (feminine أُولَى (ʔūlā), masculine plural أَوَّلُون (ʔawwalūn) or أَوَائِل (ʔawāʔil) or أَوَالٍ (ʔawālin, informal أَوَالِي (ʔawālī)), feminine plural أُولَيَات (ʔūlayāt) or أُوَل (ʔuwal))

1. first

   Antonym: آخِر (ʔāḵir)

أَوَّل • (ʔawwal) m (plural أَوَائِل (ʔawāʔil) or أَوَالٍ (ʔawālin, construct state أَوَالِي (ʔawālī)))

1. first part, beginning

   قَرَأْتُ أَوَّلَ الْكِتَابِ. ― qaraʔtu ʔawwala l-kitābi. ― I read the beginning of the book.

   مَا لَهُ أَوَّلٌ وَلَا آخِرٌ.

   mā lahu ʔawwalun walā ʔāḵirun.

   It has neither a beginning nor an end.

• أَسَاطِير الْأَوَّلِينَ (ʔasāṭīr al-ʔawwalīna)

• Egyptian Arabic: أول (ʔawwil)
• Gulf Arabic: اول (awwal)
• Maltese: ewwel
• → Domari: awwal
• → Acehnese: awai
• → Malay: awal
  • → Ternate: awal
• → Classical Persian: اَوَّل (awwal)
  • Dari: اَوَّل (awwal)
  • Iranian Persian: اَوَّل (avval)
  • Tajik: аввал (avval)
  • → Bengali: আউয়াল (aual)
  • → Chagatai: اول (ʾwl /⁠äwwäl⁠/) (see there for further descendants)
  • → Hindustani:

    Hindi: अव्वल (avval)

    Urdu: اَوَّل (avval)

  • → Khalaj: əvvəl
• → Old Anatolian Turkish: أَوَّل ('ävväl)
  • Azerbaijani: əvvəl
  • Gagauz: evel
  • Ottoman Turkish: اول (evvel)
    • Turkish: evvel
    • → Armenian: ավալ (aval)
• → Rohingya: áwal
• → Turkmen: owal
• → Kazakh: әуелгі (äuelgı)

• Ibrahim Al-Shamsan (23 August 2024), “يجيء أوَّل مصروفًا وغير مصروف”, in Al-Jazirah‎^[1], retrieved 23 August 2024

From Proto-Semitic *ʔil-, otherwise أَيْل (ʔayl), إِيل (ʔīl), إِلّ (ʔill), the most important god in the paganic pantheon—equivalent to the Sun, after which in the Western world the Sunday is named, in others. Origin from “first” above is unlikely since all other pagan weekday names are named after planets and thus indirectly gods and the other Semitic languages there employ *ʔaḥad-, which would have been retained. Lastly the Banu Bakr and Taghlib tribes actually worshiped a deity called أَوَال (ʔawāl) or أُوَال (ʔuwāl).

أَوْل or أَوَّل • (ʔawl or ʔawwal) m

1. (obsolete) Sunday

• days of the week (pre-Islamic): أَيَّامُ ٱلْأُسْبُوعِ فِي مَا قَبْلَ ٱلْإِسْلَام (ʔayyāmu l-ʔusbūʕi fī mā qabla l-ʔislām) (appendix): أَوْل (ʔawl)~أَوَّل (ʔawwal) · أَهْوَن (ʔahwan)~أَوْهَد (ʔawhad)~أَهْوَد (ʔahwad) · جُبَار (jubār) · دُبَار (dubār) · مُؤْنِس (muʔnis) · عَرُوبَة (ʕarūba) · شِيَار (šiyār) ^[edit]

• Fischer, August (1896), “Die altarabischen Namen der sieben Wochentage”, in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft‎^[2] (in German), volume 50, page 224
• Hommel, Fritz (1893), Süd-Arabische Chrestomathie. Minäo-sabäische Grammatik. – Bibliographie. – Minäische Inschriften nebst Glossar‎^[3] (in German), München: G. Franz’sche Hofbuchhandlung, →DOI, page 57
• Rotter, Gernot (1993), “Der dies veneris im vorislamischen Mekka, eine neue Deutung des Namens „Europa“ und eine Erklärung für kobar = Venus”, in Der Islam‎^[4] (in German), volume 70, number 1, →DOI, pages 116–118
• Wellhausen, Julius (1897), Reste arabischen Heidentumes‎^[5] (in German), Berlin: Georg Reimer, page 64
• Yāqūt al-Ḥamawīy (a. 1229), Ferdinand Wüstenfeld, editor, كتاب معجم البلدان [kitāb muʿjam al-buldān]‎^[6] (in Arabic), volume 1, Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus, published 1866, page 395

Causative to آلَ (ʔāla, “to return”), semantically like German zurückführen, and paralleling Arabic عَبَّرَ (ʕabbara, “to get across”).

أَوَّلَ • (ʔawwala) II (non-past يُؤَوِّلُ (yuʔawwilu), verbal noun تَأْوِيل (taʔwīl))

1. (obsolete) to lead back; to bid to return
2. to interpret, to explain

   Synonym: تَأَوَّلَ (taʔawwala)

أُولَ • (ʔūla) (form I) /ʔuː.la/

1. first-person singular non-past passive jussive of وَلِيَ (waliya)

أول (form IV)

1. أُولِ (ʔūli) /ʔuː.li/: first-person singular non-past active jussive of أَوْلَى (ʔawlā)
2. أُولَ (ʔūla) /ʔuː.la/: first-person singular non-past passive jussive of أَوْلَى (ʔawlā)
3. أَوْلِ (ʔawli) /ʔaw.li/: second-person masculine singular imperative of أَوْلَى (ʔawlā)

• اول

Inherited from Arabic أَوَّلَ (ʔawwala)

• (Cairo) IPA^(key): /ʔaw.wil/

أول • (ʔawwil)

1. to interpret

From Arabic أَوَّل (ʔawwal).

• IPA^(key): /ʔaw.wil/, [ˈʔæwːɪl]

أول • (ʔawwil) (feminine أولى (ʔūla), masculine plural أوائل (ʔawāʔil))

1. first

   Synonym: أولاني (ʔawwāni)

From Arabic أَوَّل (ʔawwal).

أول • (ʔawwal) (feminine أولى (ʔūla))

1. first

   Antonym: آخِر (ʔāḵir)

From Arabic أَوَّل (ʔawwal).

• IPA^(key): /ʔaw.wal/

أول • (ʔawwal) (feminine أولى (ʔūla) or أولة (ʔawwla), common plural أوائل (ʔawāʔil), masculine plural أولين (ʔawwlīn), feminine plural أولات (ʔawwlāt))

1. first

From Arabic أَوَّل (ʔawwal).

• IPA^(key): /ʔaw.wal/, [ˈʔaw.wal]

• Audio (Ramallah):

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أول • (ʔawwal) (feminine أولى (ʔūla), common plural أوائل (ʔawāʔel) or أولى (ʔuwala))

1. first

   Antonym: آخر (ʔāḵer)

   كيف كان أوّل يوم مدرسة؟ ― kīf kān ʔawwal yōm madrase ― How was the first day of school?

2. as soon as [with ما]

• Ordinal numbers can function either as regular adjectives, following the noun (المرّة الأولى (il-marra l-ʔūla, “the first time”)), or as elative adjectives, initiating a definite phrase (أوّل مرّة (ʔawwal marra, “the first time”)); the latter is more versatile and is far more common.

• أوّلا (ʔawwalan, “firstly, first of all”)

أول • (ʔawwal) m

1. beginning, start

   Synonym: بداية (bidāye)

   Antonyms: آخر (ʔāḵer), نهاية (nihāye)

Unknown. Compare Hijazi Arabic أُولِي (ʔūli, “first”), تُونِي (tūni, “second”), etc., used in children's games in the same context.

Perhaps from reanalyzing the feminine أُولَى (ʔūla, “first”) as أُوّْلَى or أُوّْلَة (ʔuwwl-a), allowing for a new masculine form أُوِّل (ʔuwwel) to be extracted and for its pattern to spread to other numbers by analogy, but this proposal may be at odds with the form of the Hijazi cognate.

• IPA^(key): /ʔuw.wel/, [ˈʔuw.wel]

أول • (ʔuwwel) m

1. (childish) first (in a game)

• Used in children's games when determining turns.

• تُنِّي (tunni, “second”), تُلِّت (tullet, “third”), رُبِّع (rubbeʕ, “fourth”), خُمِّس (ḵummes, “fifth”)