لَيْتَ
Root: ليت
Full Definition
لَيْتَ
a word denoting a wish [signifying Would that —; I wish that —;] generally relating to a thing that is impossible; rarely to a thing that is possible: governing the subject in the acc. case, and the predicate in the nom. case, like كَأَنَّ (or [rather] إِنَّ, MF) and its coordinates, because it resembles verbs in their force as words, [being composed of at least three letters, and the last being meftoohah,] and in their admitting most of the pronouns as affixes, and in their meanings. Ex. لَيْتَ زَيْدًا ذَاهِبٌ [Would that Zeyd were going;] and لَيْتَنِى فَعَلْتُ كَذَا وَكَذَا [Would that I had done so and so.] You say لَيْتِى as well as لَيْتَنِى, like لَعَلِّى and لَعَلَّنِى, and إِنِّى and إِنَّنِى: but ليتنى is more common than ليتى; whereas لعلّنى is less common than لعلّى. You also say يَا لَيْتَ
O, would that —;.] As to the saying of the poet,
2 لَيْتَمَا: see De Sacy's Gr. Ar. ii. 63.
3 See also an ex. of ليت as a subst. voce سَوْفَ.
meaning لَنَا رَوَاجِعَ, [O, would that the days of youth were returning !] رواجع is put in the acc. case therein as a word descriptive of state: or it is governed in the acc. case by a verb understood, as أَقْبَلَتْ, or عَادَتْ, or some other verb suitable to the meaning: so says Sb: or ليت in the above verse may be used in the manner of وَجَدْتُ, [see below], for ليت is sometimes used in the manner of وَجَدْتُ [I found], in government, not in meaning, as related by the grammarians on the authority of certain of the Arabs, so that it is doubly transitive, and used in the manner of verbs: you say, لَيْتَ زَيْدًا شَاخِصًا [Would that Zeyd were going away, &c.]: this is done to give intensiveness: one says, for this purpose, لَيْتَ زَيْدًا قَائِمًا putting both the subject and the predicate in the acc. case.يَا لَيْتَ أَيَّامَ الصِّبَا رَوَاجِعَا
2 لَيْتَمَا: see De Sacy's Gr. Ar. ii. 63.
3 See also an ex. of ليت as a subst. voce سَوْفَ.
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