Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon

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ساواهُ

Root: سوى

Form: 3

Full Definition

ساواهُIII , Verbal.Noun مُسَاوَاةٌ and سِوآءٌ, It was, or became, equal to it, and like it, in measure, extent, size, bulk, quantity, or amount, and in value, or in linear measure, and in weight, and in the measure of capacity, [as well as in value:] one says هٰذَا الثَّوْبُ مُسَاوٍ لِذٰلِكَ الثَّوْبِ [This garment, or piece of cloth, is equal in length and breadth to that garment, or piece of cloth]; and هٰذَا الثَّوْبُ مُسَاوٍ لِذٰلِكَ الدِّرْهَمِ [This garment, or piece of cloth, is equivalent to that dirhem]: and sometimes it means in mode, or manner of being: one says, هٰذَا لِذٰلِكَ السَّوَادِ [This blackness is equal in quality to this blackness]. Er-Rághib, TA.) It is said in a trad., سَاوَى الظِّلُّ التِّلَالَ The shade, or shadow, was like, in its extent, to the mounds, in their height. [And ساوى الشَّىْءُ رَأْسَهُ means The thing equalled in height his head: see an ex. of the verb tropically used in this sense voce سِىٌّ.] One says also, هٰذَا يُسَاوِى دِرْهَمًا This is worth, or equal in its value to, a dirhem: and in a rare dial., one says, سَوِىَ دِرْهَمًا, Present.T يَسْوَاهُ; which AZ disallows, saying, one says ساواه, but not يَسْوَاهُ. And هٰذَا الشَّىْءُ لَا يُسَاوِى كَذَا This thing is not equivalent to [or is not worth] such a thing: or لَايُسَاوِى شَيْئًا [It is not worth anything]: لا is of a rare dial., unknown to Fr, disallowed by A'Obeyd, but mentioned by others: Az says that it is not of the language of the Arabs [of pure speech], but is post-classical; and in like manner لا is not correct Arabic: this last is with damm to the [first] ى: MF says that the generality of authorities disallow it, and the Fs expressly disallows it, but the expositors thereof say that it is correct and chaste, of the dial. of the people of El-Hijáz, though an instance of a verb of which the Present.T only is used. One says likewise, ساوى الرَّجُلُ قِرْنَهُ The man equalled his opponent, or competitor, in knowledge, or in courage.
2 See also 6.

def.2 And see 2, in four places, in the former half of the paragraph.
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