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ثَدْىٌ

Root: ثدى

Full Definition

ثَدْىٌ and ثِدْىٌ and ثَدًى: the first of these is the form most commonly obtaining: [The breast, or mamma;] the part of the chest whereof the حَلَمَة is the head; each of the two parts whereof the حَلَمَتَانِ are the two heads: [and sometimes, but not properly, the حَلَمَة alone; i. e., the pap, nipple, or mamilla:] you say ثَدْى مُقْعَدٌ a breast that is swelling, prominent, or protuberant, (S, A, L, K, in art. قعد,) that fills the hand, and has not yet become folding: and رَضَعَ ثَدْىَ أُمِّهِ [he sucked the breast, meaning the pap, or nipple, of his mother]. (IKtt in TA, art. رضع:) it is peculiar to woman; or common to woman and man; being sometimes used in relation to a man; accord. to the opinion held to be most chaste and best known by the lexicologists [in general]: and is masc.; or masc. and fem.; but most chastely masc.: the pl. [of pauc.] is أَثْدٍ, (S, M, Msb, K,] [originally أَثْدُىٌ,] of the measure أَفْعُلٌ, and [of mult.] ثُدِىٌّ, [originally ثُدُوىٌ,] of the measure فُعُولٌ, and ثِدِىٌّ, with kesr to the ث because of the kesr to the letter following, and sometimes ثِدَآءٌ, [originally ثِدَاىٌ,] like سِهَامٌ; and a poet says, وَأَصْبَحَتِ النِّسَآءُ مُسَلِّبَاتٍ لَهُنَّ الوَيْلُ يَمْدُدْنَ الثُّدِينَا [And the women became widowed, or bereft of relations, and without their ornaments, or in mourning, having woe, pulling the breasts]; but this is something like a mistake; and it may be that he meant التُّدِيَّا, and changed the [latter] ى into ن for the sake of the rhyme. It is said in a prov., تُجَوَّعُ الحُرَّةُ وَلَا تَأْكُلُ ثَدْيَيْهَا, meaning, أُجْرَةَ ثَدْيَيْهَا, [i. e. The ingenuous woman will be made to hunger and will not eat the hire of her breasts,] the prefixed noun being suppressed; or, as some relate it, بِثَدْيَيْهَا, which is plain [as meaning, by means of her breasts]: it is applied in relation to a man's preserving himself from ignoble means of acquiring wealth. And جُدَّ ثَدْىُ أُمِّهِ, May his mother's breast be cut off, is a form of imprecation against a man, and used to imply a wish for his separation. (As, L in art. جد.) The saying of 'Alee, on the day of his slaughter of the Khawárij, اُنْظُرُوا فَإِنَّ فِيِهمْ رَجُلًا إِحْدَى يَدَيْهِ مِثْلُ ثَدْىِ المَرْأَةِ [Look ye, for among them is a man one of whose arms is like the breast of the woman], not احدى ثَدْيَيْهِ as some relate it, was applied to a man who had, in the place of one arm, a lump of flesh upon his shoulder-joint, which lump, when it was stretched, became equal in length to his other arm, and when it was left, returned [to its original form]. Respecting ثُدَيَّةٌ , the dim., whence the surname ذَو الثُّدَيَّةِ, he who holds ثَدْىٌ to be masc. [only] says that the ة is added because the word [virtually] means اليَد, [which is fem.,] for the man thus surnamed had a short arm, of the size of the ثَدْى, as is indicated by the fact that they also called him ذُو اليُدَيَّةِ: or, accord. to Fr, ة is added, in this instance, in the dim., though ثَدْىٌ is masc., because it applies to what resembled the remains (بَقِيَّة) of a ثَدْى, the greater part of it having gone, so that it is like لُحَمْيَةٌ and شُحَيْمَةٌ [dims. of لَحْمَةٌ and شَحْمَةٌ]: or the ة is added because the word is regarded in this case as meaning البَضْعَةُ [the piece, or lump, of flesh]: some say that it is the dim. of ثَنْدُوَةٌ; but this requires consideration.
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