ثمد
Core meaning
The word ثَمَد names a scant water, left in a hollow with no spring to renew it, and which one exhausts. The text does not use it on its own: it makes it heard in the name ثَمُود, a people whose account turns on the sharing of a water; the translation writes "the Thamud".
Uses
ثَمُود → "the Thamud" : the people to whom Salih is sent; the account puts them to the test of a shared water.
- «وَإِلَىٰ ثَمُودَ أَخَاهُمْ صَٰلِحًۭا» — "And to the Thamud, their brother Salih" (7:73)
Evidence from the text
The account of the Thamud turns on a measured water. The she-camel given as a sign has "a turn to drink", and the people have another, "on a known day" (26:155); "the water is to be shared between them" (54:28); the messenger reminds them: "The she-camel of God, and her watering!" (91:13).
A water that does not suffice for all at once, and that is shared by turns: this is what ثَمَد names.
See also
ثمود (the Thamud) · شرب (the turn to drink)