ض ẓad : ض ẓad
called ضاد معجمه and
ضاد منقوطه the fif-
teenth letter of the
Arabic alphabet, does not occur in
Persian, nor is there any
corresponding letter in
Sanskrit. In
Persia and
Hindū- stān its
pronunciation is
hardly distinguished from that of ز; but, in
Arabia it is a mixed sound of d, th, and w, only to be
acquired from
natives of that
country. In the
notation of
numbers by the
Arabic letters, it
stands for 800. It is one of the
radical letters. The د of Per- sian
words, when they are
introduced into Ara- bic, is often
changed into this
letter, as
ضحاک for ده آک See under ح. When three of these
letters meet
together, as in
تقضّض the
darting of a hawk upon his prey, the last is
changed into ي, as
تقضي. And in verbs of the
measure افتعال the
servile ت after this
letter is
changed to ط or to ض as
اضطراب or
اضّراب from
ضرب.