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خَانِسٌ

Root: خنس

Full Definition

خَانِسٌ Going back or backwards; receding; retreating; retiring; or retrograding: or remaining behind; holding back; hanging back; or lagging behind: syn. مُتَأَخِّرٌ: pl. خُنَّسٌ.
2 [Hence,] الخُنَّسُ, The stars; i. e., all of them; because they retire, or hide themselves, (تَخْنُسُ,) at setting; or because they become concealed in the day-time: or the planets: or the five stars, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury: because they return, (تَخْنُسُ, i. c., تَرْجِعُ, Jel,) in their course: when you see a star [thereof] in the end of a sign of the zodiac, it returns to the beginning of it: or because of their retrogression; for they are the erratic stars (الكَوَاكِبُ المُتَحَيَّرِةُ), which [at one time appear to] retrograde, and [at another time to] pursue a direct [and forward] course: or because they sometimes return (تخنس) in their course until they become concealed in the light of the sun: or because they hide themselves, as the devil does at the mention of God.
3 And hence, i. e., from خَانِسٌ in the sense of مُتَأَخِّرٌ, the saying in a trad. of El- Hajjáj, الإِبِلُ ضِمَّرٌ خِنَّسٌ, meaning, [Camels are lean, and lank in the belly, and] patient of thirst.
4 And اللَّيَالِى الخُنَّسُ The three nights of the lunar month during which the moon retires [from view].
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