# منذ
## Arabic
### Alternative forms

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /mun.ðu/

### Preposition

مُنْذُ • (munḏu) [with genitive or nominative]
* denotes the time at which an occurrence started
    Synonym: مِنْ (min)
    رَأَيْتُكَ مُنْذُ يَوْمُ الْخَمِيسِraʔaytuka munḏu yawmu l-ḵamīsiI have been seeing you since Thursday.
    رَأَيْتُكَ مُنْذُ يَوْمُ الْخَمِيسِ إِلَى يُوْمِ الْجُمُعَةِraʔaytuka munḏu yawmu l-ḵamīsi ʔilā yuwmi l-jumuʕatiI saw you from Thursday to Friday.
* denotes an amount of time stretching from the past
    Synonym: مِنْ (min)
    لَا أَزَالُ أَرَاكَ مُنْذُ يَوْمَيْنِlā ʔazālu ʔarāka munḏu yawmayniI have been seeing you for two days.
* 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) [Let Us Weep]:قِفَا نَبْكِ مِنْ ذِكْرَى حَبِيبٍ وَعِرْفَانِ وَرَسْمٍ عَفَتْ آيَاتُهُ مُنْذُ أَزْمَانِqifā nabki min ḏikrā ḥabībin wa-ʕirfānī wa-rasmin ʕafat ʔāyātuhu munḏu ʔazmānīHalt! 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) [Samurai Jack]: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.[translit?]
* 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.
* (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)
* 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 الجُدُودismuhu ʿizzuhu munḏu kāna l-judūdIts 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 يَوْمَانِraʔaytuka 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