Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon

أَشْرَفُ

Root: شرف

Full Definition

أَشْرَفُ [More, and most, high, elevated, exalted, or eminent, in rank, condition, or estimation; &c.; generally meaning more, and most, high-born or noble; (see شَرِيفٌ;)] surpassing in شَرَف.
2 مَنْكِبٌ أَشْرَفُ A high shoulder; such as has a goodly rising; which implies what is termed إِهْدَآء [Verbal.Noun of أَهْدَأَهُ, and here app. meaning the “ being curved in the back ”]. And أُذُنٌ شَرْفَآءُ A long ear; standing up; rising above what is next to it: and so اذن.
3 See also شُرَافِىٌّ [أَشْرَفُ also signifies Having a prominent, or an apparent, ear: opposed to أَسَكُّ, q. v.
4 Hence,] الأَشْرَفُ is an appellation of The bat; because its ears are prominent and apparent: it is bare of downy and other feathers, and is viviparous, not oviparous: so in the saying of Bishr Ibn-ElMoatemir, وَطَائِرٌ لَيْسَ لَهُ وَكْرُ وَطَائِرٌ أَشْرَفُ ذُو جُرْدَةٍ [And a flying thing that has prominent and apparent ears and a denuded body, and a flying thing that has no nest]: in the K is added, and another bird, that has no nest, &c.: but this is taken from an explanation of the latter hemistich of the verse cited above; which explanation is as follows: the bird that has no nest is one of which the Bahránees [so in the TA, but accord. to the O “ the sailors, ”] tell that it does not alight save while it makes, of the dust, or earth, a place in which it lays its eggs, and which it covers over; then it flies into the air, and its eggs break open of themselves at the expiration of the term thereof; and when its young ones are able to fly, they do after the habit of their parents.
5 مَدِينَةٌ شَرْفَآءُ A city having شُرَف, pl. of شُرْفَةٌ [q. v.]: the pl. of أَشْرَفُ and of شَرْفَآءُ, accord. to rule, is شُرْفٌ. (Mgh. [In the copies of the K, الشُّرُفُ is erroneously said to be pl. of الشَّرْفَآءُ.]) It is said in a trad. of Ibn- ' Abbás, أُمِرْنَا أَنْ نَبْنِىَ المَدَائِنَ شُرْفًا وَالمَسَاجِدَ جُمًّا i. e. We have been commanded to build cities with شُرَف and mosques without شُرَف.


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