Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon

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سِوَاكٌ

Root: سوك

Full Definition

سِوَاكٌ and مِسْوَاكٌ signify the same; i. e. A tooth-stick; a piece of stick with which the teeth are rubbed [and cleaned, the end being made like a brush by beating or chewing it so as to separate the fibres]; [commonly] a piece of stick of the [kind of tree called] أَرَاك: accord. to IDrd, derived from سُكْتُ الشَّىْءَ meaning “ I rubbed, or rubbed well, the thing; ” accord. to IF, from تساوكت الإِبِلُ [expl. above]: accord. to Lth, سِوَاكٌ is masc. and fem., though it is the more approvable way to make it masc.; but Az holds this to be a mistake, and the word to be masc. [only]; and Hr says that this assertion of Lth is one of his foul mistakes: its pl. is سُوُكٌ and سُوْكٌ and سُؤُكٌ, and [of pauc.] أَسْوِكَةٌ; and the pl. of مِسْوَاكٌ is مَسَاوِيكُ. In the saying, in a trad., خَيْرُ خِلَالِ الصَّائِمِ السِّوَاكُ, a prefixed n. is [said to be] suppressed [so that the meaning is The best of the habits, or customs, of the faster is the use of the tooth-stick: but see 2, where سِوَاكٌ is said, on the authority of the Msb, to be also an Verbal.Noun].
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