وتد

Core meaning

The stake driven in to hold fast what is stretched: the mountains planted in the earth, the stakes from which Fir'awn draws his power.

Uses

1. أَوْتَادًۭا → "pegs" : the mountains, planted in the earth as one fixes a tent.

   • «وَٱلْجِبَالَ أَوْتَادًۭا» — "and the mountains as pegs" (78:7)

2. ذُو ٱلْأَوْتَادِ → "of the stakes" : Fir'awn defined by his stakes: a power planted to last.

   • «وَفِرْعَوْنُ ذُو ٱلْأَوْتَادِ» — "Fir'awn of the stakes" (38:12)
   • «وَفِرْعَوْنَ ذِى ٱلْأَوْتَادِ» — "And with Fir'awn, holder of the stakes" (89:10)

Evidence from the text

The word always designates a planted stake. In 78:7 it enters the series of favours: the earth made a resting place, the mountains made pegs; the outspread earth holds because it is fixed.

In 38:12 and 89:10, ذُو ٱلْأَوْتَادِ qualifies Fir'awn among the peoples who denied: what he had planted to last did not shield him from the sentence (89:13).

Distinctions

• عمد — عِمَاد / عَمَد: the pillar that bears aloft; وتد: the stake that fixes into the ground.

See also

رسو (the firm anchors, another image of the mountains holding the earth)