Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon

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إِثْمِدٌ

Root: ثمد

Full Definition

إِثْمِدٌ [An ore of antimony: or antimony itself; stibium; or stimmi:] collyrium-stone (حَجَرُ الكُحْلِ), which is black inclining to red, the mines whereof are in Ispahán, whence the best is obtained, and in the West, whence the hardest is obtained: a certain stone used as a collyrium: a certain stone from which collyrium (كُحْل) is prepared: or collyrium (كُحْل) itself: or a substance resembling it: or a species thereof: or black كُحْل, the mine whereof is in the East: said by some of the lawyers to be that of Ispahán: and said to be an arabicized word. The women of the Arabs used also to sprinkle [or rub] it upon the lips and gums, in order that the teeth might glisten the more. [And for the same purpose, many of them tattoo their lips, so as to make them of a uniform dull bluish hue.]
2 One says of a man who remains awake at night, journeying or working, فُلَانٌ يَجْعَلُ اللَّيْلَ إِثْمِدًا [Such a one makes the night a collyrium]; the blackness of the night being as though it were a collyrium to his eyes because he labours all the night in seeking the means of attaining to eminence.


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