زِينَةٌ

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زِينَةٌ , the subst. from زَانَهُ, signifies مَا يُتَزَيَّنُ بِهِ [i. e. A thing with which, or by which, one is adorned, ornamented, decorated, decked, bedecked, garnished, embellished, beautified, or graced; or with which, or by which, one adorns, &c., himself]; any such thing; [any ornament, ornature, decoration, garnish, embellishment, or grace;] and so ; and زَيْنٌ , also, [which see above,] signifies the same as زِينَةٌ: accord. to El- Harállee, زِينَةٌ denotes the [means of] beautifying, or embellishing, a thing by another thing; consisting of apparel, or an ornament of gold or silver or of jewels or gems, or aspect: or, as some say, it is the beauty [seen] of the eye that does not reach to the interior of that which is adorned [thereby]: accord. to Er-Rághib, its proper mean- ing is a thing that does not disgrace, or render unseemly, a man, in any of his states or conditions, either in the present world or in that which is to come: but that which adorns him in one state or condition, exclusively of another, is in one point of view شَيْنٌ: summarily speaking, it is of three kinds; namely, mental, such as knowledge or science, and good tenets; and bodily, such as strength, and tallness of stature, and beauty of aspect; and extrinsic, such as wealth, and rank or station or dignity; and all these are mentioned in the Kur: the pl. is زِيَنٌ. زِينَةُ الحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا [or simply زِينَةُ الدُّنْيَا generally means The ornature, finery, show, pomp, or gaiety, of the present life or world; and] particularly includes wealth and children. زِينَةُ الأَرْضِ [The ornature of the earth] means the plants, or herbage, of the earth. يَوْمُ الزِّينَةِ [The day of ornature] is the festival (العِيدُ); when men used [and still use] to adorn themselves with goodly articles of apparel. And also The day of the breaking [of the dam a little within the entrance] of the canal of Misr [here meaning the present capital of Egypt, El-Káhireh, which we call “ Cairo ”], i. e. the canal which runs through the midst of Misr, and [the dam of] which is broken when the Nile has attained the height of sixteen cubits or more: this day is said to be meant in the Kur xx. 61: it is one of the days observed in Egypt with the greatest gladness and rejoicing from ancient times; and its observance in the days of the Fátimees was such as is inconceivable, as it is described in the “ Khitat ” of El-Makreezee.

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Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon

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