دين

Meaning

Noun

1. (form-of, noun-from-verb) verbal noun of دَانَ (dāna, “to be religious”) (form I)
2. (countable, uncountable) religion, creed, credo, faith, conviction, belief, tenet, rite
3. (noun-from-verb, uncountable) conformism, conformance, conformity, compliance, fealty, obedience; God-fearingness, godliness, religiosity, devoutness
4. law, obligations, duty
5. custom, habit
6. (rare) judgement, decision, ruling
7. (rare) judgement, decision, ruling

Adj

religious, pious, godly, God-fearing, devout

Verb

to religiousize

Verb

to loan, to lend, to advance

Concepts

religion

debt

faith

belief

opinion

conviction

creed

dean

devotional

godfearing

assuredness

loan

mind

outstanding debt

profess

receivable

religious

thought

💭

view

beliefs

persuasion

liability

borrow

censure

condemn

confidence

Synonyms

ديانة

إِقناع

عقيدة

إیمان

صالح

مذهب

ترهب

Translations

religione

religion

Religion

religião

religión

religie

θρησκεία

convinzione

debito

religio

religió

Überzeugung

dette

χρέος

Pronounced as (IPA)

/diːn/

Etymology

A historically conflated term derived from multiple layers of phono-semantic matching:
* Initially stemming from Proto-Semitic *dVn- (“obligated conduct; decisions of morality or ethics, judgement, decree, ruling”), where in Arabia it took specifically the foremost connotation of obligations, duty, what is expected or owed; hence also the sense of a monetary debt along with that which is owed to society ethically.
* Cognate terms in other Semitic languages also came with a more developed legal sense, rulings, a set of obligations, a law code; these senses were bolstered semantically borrowing from Aramaic דִּינָא (dīnā), Classical Syriac ܕܺܝܢܳܐ (dīnā, “judgement”), Hebrew דִּין (din), Ge'ez ደይን (däyn, “judgement”), which likely had their specified development from Akkadian 𒁲 (dīnum, “judgement; legal practice, precedent; legal case; court conduct, procedures, rule of law”). Another possible layer still is Sumerian 𒁲 (di /⁠did⁠/, “lawsuit, trial; legal decision”) which is a term of uncertain origins; potentially an early Akkadian borrowing, at least semantically, or natively derived from 𒁲 (di, “to speak”), a form of 𒅗 (dug₄ /⁠dug⁠/, “to speak, talk, say; to order, to negotiate”).
* The sense of religious creed or a system of religious rules is borrowed from Middle Persian [Book Pahlavi needed] (dyn' /⁠dēn⁠/), which developed from Old Persian *dainah (“a religious-informed or conscientious way of life”). Developing also from Younger Avestan 𐬛𐬉𐬥𐬁 (dēnā), a term already having a predecessor with a religious sense in Avestan 𐬛𐬀𐬉𐬥𐬁 (daēnā), which is possibly akin to Sanskrit ध्यान (dhyāna), whence zen. This possibly derives in part under the influence of Elamite, developing from the Akkadian legal sense; religious obligation to deities, the system or conduct of the priesthood regarding divinities.
* The Qurʾān and later Islamic scholarship adds an additional layer of phono-semantic matching, melding the native significations with the connotations imparted by the languages of their neighbors, both from the Semitic family and those not.