مَلَسَى

Full Definition

مَلَسَى : see إِمْلِيسٌ.

def.2 A she-camel that escapes and goes away so quickly that nothing attaches, or clings, to her: or quick, or swift, in the utmost degree: or quick, or swift; as also مَلُوسٌ : or the latter signifies a she-camel excellent, or good, in the pace termed عَنَق, [so I render مِعْنَاقٌ,] that outstrips, and is seen to be first among the camels in the place of pasturage and the watering-place and every journeying.
2 Also, A man who will not remain firm to a compact, covenant, engagement, or promise; like as the smooth thing will not remain firm. It is said in a proverb, alluding to dislike, or hatred, of faults or the like, المَلَسَى لَا عَهْدَ لَهُ [He who will not remain firm to a compact, &c., for him there is no compact, &c.]; meaning, that he has got out of the affair in safety, there being nothing due to him, nor anything to be demanded of him. [But see what here follows.]
3 It is said in a proverb, applied to him in whose fidelity one does not trust, المَلَسَى لَا عُهْدَةَ لَهُ, meaning ذُو المَلَسَى; i. e., He who steals a commodity, and sells it for less than its price, and escapes immediately and hides himself, so that if he who has a just claim to it come, he finds his property in the hand of him who purchased it, he takes it, and the price which the thief gained goes for nought, and the purchaser cannot return to him to recover the price: or it means, he who goes away privily, gets out of the affair in safety, there being nothing due to him, nor anything to be demanded of him: or املسى means, a man's selling a commodity which he has stolen, and abating the price, and then absenting himself; so that when it is plucked from the hand of the purchaser, he cannot sue the seller as responsible for the loss thereof: or the sale to which attaches no claim upon the seller for having acted unjustly: or the selling a thing without making one's self responsible for any loss or the like that may be occasioned by it. One says, also, in selling, مَلَسَى لَا عُهْدَةَ, meaning, that he has escaped from the affair, or become quit of it; that there is nothing due to him, nor anything to be demanded of him: [i. e., I am quit of the affair: no claim shall be made for indemnification.] You say, also, أَبِيعُكَ المَلَسَى لَا عُهْدَةَ, meaning, [I sell to thee on the condition that] thou shalt get thee away, and not return to me, nor have any claim upon me for indemnification. [In some copies of the S, here and in art. عهد, the verbs by which the meaning is explained are of the third person, as though referring to the things sold; but the right reading I hold to be that which I have followed. See also art. عهد.]

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Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon

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