Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon

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إِرْدَبٌّ

Root: ردب

Full Definition

إِرْدَبٌّ A well-known مِكْيَال [or measure with which corn is measured], a large مِكْيَال, in Egypt, [i. e.] of the people of Egypt; or a certain measure of capacity well known in Egypt; not correctly called a مِكْيَال for they do not measure with it, but with the وَيْبَة: it comprises, (يَضُمُّ, [so in the M, but in copies of the K وَيُضَمُّ, which signifies that it is also pronounced with damm,]) as they say, or it takes, twenty-four times the measure called صَاع, of wheat, i. e. sixty-four times the measure called مَنّ, the منّ here meant being the منّ of our country, and the صاع being that of the Prophet: or six وَيْبَات: the اردبّ of Egypt is six وَيْبَات; the وَيْبَة being four أَرْبَاع; the رُبْع, four أَقْدَاح; and the قَدَح, two hundred and thirty-two دَرَاهِم: the half of the اردبّ is called قَنْقَلٌ: the word اردبّ is affirmed by some to be arabicized: [it is now vulgarly pronounced أَرْدَبّ:] the pl. is أَرَادِبُ. El-Akhtal says, قَوْمٌ إِذَا ٱسْتَنْبَحَ الأَضْيَافُ كَلْبَهُمُ قَالُوا لِأُمِّهِمُ بُولِى عَلَى النَّارِ وَالخُبْزُ كَالعَنْبَرِ الهِنْدِىِّ عِنْدَهُمُ وَالقَمْحُ سَبْعُونَ إِرْدَبًّا بِدِينَارِ [Persons who, when the guests induce their dog to bark, (see art. نبح,) say to their mother, “ Make water on the fire: ” and bread is like Indian ambergris in their judgment, while wheat is seventy irdebbs for a deenár]: the former of these two verses [whereof the latter only is cited in the S] is said by As and others to be the most severely-satirical verse uttered by any of the Arabs.
2 Also A conduit in which water flows upon the surface of the ground.
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