سَائِرٌ

Full Definition

سَائِرٌ The rest, or remainder, (T, and M in art. سير, and Msb and K,) of a thing, whether little or much; and of men, or people: not the whole, or all, as many imagine it to mean, though people use it in this latter sense, which Sgh asserts to be a vulgar error: it occurs repeatedly in trads., and always in the former sense: or it is sometimes used [in chaste Arabic] in the latter sense: and is correctly so used accord. to AAF and J and IJ and ElJawáleekee and IB, the last of whom confirms this signification by many examples and evident proofs: but whether, in this sense, it is derived from السَّيْر, as AAF and J and others hold, or from سُورٌ the “ wall which surrounds a town or city, ” as others hold, is disputed: and سَارُ الشَّىْءِ is a dial. var. of سَائِرُهُ. (S in art. سير.)
2 An Arab of the desert became the guest of a party, and they ordered the female slave to perfume him; whereupon he said, بَطْنِى عَطِّرِى وَسَائِرِى ذَرِى [My belly perfume thou, and the rest of me leave thou]: but in other lexicons than the K, we find أَعْطِرِى. (TA in art. عطر.) This saying is a well-known prov. [In the TA it is added that سائري here signifies the whole of me, or all of me: but this is an evident mistake.] You say this to a man who gives you what you do not want, and refuses you what you want. (Sgh, TA in art. عطر.)
3 It is related, also, that a hostile attack was made upon a people, and they cried out for aid to the sons of their uncle; but these held back from them until they had been made captives and taken away; then they came inquiring respecting them; and the person asked replied, أَسَائِرَ اليَوْمِ وَقَدْ زَالَ الظُّهْرُ [What, all the day, when the noon has passed?] i. e., Dost thou covet what is remote, (مَا بَعُدَ, (S, K, TA, in a copy of the S and in one of the K and in the CK مَا بَعْدُ,) when [reason for] despair hath become manifest to thee: for when one wants the whole day, and the noon has passed, he must despair like as he despairs of accomplishing his want at sunset. (S in art. سير, and K.) This saying is a prov.; and is used with reference to a thing which one hopes to attain when its time has passed.

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