رُكْبَةٌ
Root: ركب
Full Definition
رُكْبَةٌ
a word of well-known meaning, [The knee; i. e., in a man,] the joint between the lower parts of the thigh and the upper parts of the shank: or [in a quadruped,] the joint between the metacarpus and the radius (مَوْصِلُ الوَظِيفِ وَالذِّرَاعِ): this is the right explanation: in the K, مَوْضِع is erroneously put for مَوْصِل: [this explanation is evidently given accord. to the terms employed in the anatomy of quadrupeds as compared to human beings: in that which next follows, there is certainly an omission, which I have endeavoured to supply:] or the رُكْبَتَانِ of the fore legs of the camel are the two joints that [project forwards, in like manner as do, in the hind legs, those that] are next the belly [meaning the stifle-joints] when he lies down upon his breast with folded legs: the two joints that project behind [in the hind legs, namely, the hocks,] are called the عُرْقُوبَانِ: in every quadruped, the ركبتان are in the fore legs, and the عرقوبان are in the hind legs: and the عرقوب is what is called مَوْصِلُ الوَظِيفِ [i. e. the upper joint of the metatarsus]: or the ركبة is the مِرْفَق [which in a man is the elbow, but here seems to mean the lower joint] of the
ذِرَاع [or radius] of anything [i. e. of any beast]: [from its being said in the S and Msb that the رُكْبَة is “ well known, ” I conclude that there is no real discrepancy in the foregoing explanations: it is perhaps needless to add that the term رُكْبَة is now universally applied to the knee of a man and to what we commonly call the knee of a horse and the like:] the pl. is رُكَبٌ, i. e. the pl. of mult., and the pl. of pauc. is رُكْبَاتٌ and رُكَبَاتٌ and رُكُبَاتٌ. Lh mentions the phrase بَعِيرٌ مُسْتَوْقِحُ الرُّكَبِ [meaning A hardkneed camel]; as though the term رُكْبَةٌ were applied to each part, and the pl. used accord. to this application.
2 One says [of an agitating affair or event], أَمْرٌ ٱصْطَكَّتْ فِيهِ الرُّكَبُ وَحَكَّتْ فِيهِ الرُّكْبَةُ الرُّكَبَةَ
3 And of one who has the mark of prostration in prayer on his forehead, between his eyes, بَيْنَ عَيْنَيْهِ مِثْلُ رُكْبَةِ العَنْزِ [Between his eyes is the like of the knee of the she-goat]. And of any two things that are alike, or correspondent, هُمَا كَرُكْبَتَى العَنْزِ [They are like the two knees of the she-goat]; because her two knees fall together upon the ground when she lies down.
4 And it is said in a prov., شَرُّ النَّاسِ مَنْ مِلْحُهُ عَلَى رُكعبَتِهِ [The worst of men is he whose fat is upon his knee]: applied to him who is quickly angered; and to the perfidious: the phrase مِلْحُهُ عَلَى رُكْبَتِهِ is also used as meaning The smallest thing makes him angry: and a poet says,
def.2 Also The lower part (أَصْل) of the plant صِلِّيَانَة, when it has been cut.
2 One says [of an agitating affair or event], أَمْرٌ ٱصْطَكَّتْ فِيهِ الرُّكَبُ وَحَكَّتْ فِيهِ الرُّكْبَةُ الرُّكَبَةَ
3 And of one who has the mark of prostration in prayer on his forehead, between his eyes, بَيْنَ عَيْنَيْهِ مِثْلُ رُكْبَةِ العَنْزِ [Between his eyes is the like of the knee of the she-goat]. And of any two things that are alike, or correspondent, هُمَا كَرُكْبَتَى العَنْزِ [They are like the two knees of the she-goat]; because her two knees fall together upon the ground when she lies down.
4 And it is said in a prov., شَرُّ النَّاسِ مَنْ مِلْحُهُ عَلَى رُكعبَتِهِ [The worst of men is he whose fat is upon his knee]: applied to him who is quickly angered; and to the perfidious: the phrase مِلْحُهُ عَلَى رُكْبَتِهِ is also used as meaning The smallest thing makes him angry: and a poet says,
[Blame her not; for she is of a set of people whose fat is placed above the knees: perhaps meaning, for she is but a woman; as women are generally fat in the part above the knee]: or مِنْ نِسْوَةٍ [in the place of مِنْ عُصْبَةٍ], meaning of women whose object of anxiety, or care, is fatness and fat: so that the prov. seems to mean that the worst of men is he who has not such intelligence as bids him to do that which is praiseworthy, but only bids him to do that in which is inconstancy and levity, and an inclining to the dispositions of women, to the love of fatness and fat. [See other explanations in art. ملح.]لَا تَلُمْهَا إِنَّهَا مِنْ عُصْبَةٍ مِلْحُهَا مَوْضُوعَةٌ فَوْقَ الرُّكَبْ
def.2 Also The lower part (أَصْل) of the plant صِلِّيَانَة, when it has been cut.
Lane's Lexicon
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Hans Wehr
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