أًسْفَعُ

Full Definition

أًسْفَعُ Of a black colour tinged, or intermixed, with redness: or black: applied to a man: fem سَفْعَآءُ: and سُفْعٌ [is the pl., and] signifies blacks inclining to redness. Applied to an ostrich, i. q. أَرْبَدُ [which is variously explained, as signifying Of a colour inclining to blackness, or of the colour of dust, &c.]. And the fem., applied to a ewe, Having black cheeks, the rest of her being white. The masc. also signifies A wild bull: or, applied to a wild bull, it signifies having in his cheeks a blackness inclining a little to redness. And The hawk; because it has spots of black: all hawks are سُفْعٌ: and the fem., A pigeon (حَمَامَةٌ); because of the سُفْعَة upon its neck: or, applied to a pigeon, it signifies of which the سُفْعَة is upon its neck, exclusively of the head, in the part on each side of the neck above the ring. It is also a name for Sheep, or goats; used when they are called to be milked: so in the O: but in some copies, and in the TS, for the she-goat: thus in the phrase, أَشْلِ إِلَيْكَ الأَسْفَعَ [Call thou to thee the sheep, or goats, or the she-goat, to be milked]: mentioned by Ibn-'Abbád.
2 Applied to a garment, or piece of cloth, Black.
3 ↓ The pl. is also applied to The أَثَافِىّ, or three stones upon which the cooking-pot is set up; because of their blackness: [see حَاضِنٌ:] and a single one thereof is called سَفْعَآءُ: or an iron أُثْفِيَّة [meaning trivet], upon which the cooking-pot is set up; and this is said to be the primary application.
4 سُفْعٌ also signifies The seeds, or grain, of the colocynth; because of their blackness: n. un. with ة.

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Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon

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