سَوْفَ

Full Definition

سَوْفَ , for which one also says سَفْ, rejecting the medial radical letter, and سَوْ, rejecting the final radical, and سَىْ, rejecting the final radical and changing the medial into ى for the purpose of alleviation [of the utterance], and accord. to the L سَا, is a particle, denoting inception; or a word denoting تَنْفِيس, i. e. amplification, because it changes the Present.T from the strait time, which is the present, to the ample time, which is the future; (Mughnee voce سَ [q. v.];) i. e., denoting تنفيس with respect to that which has not yet happened; and postponement; and is used in terrifying and threatening and promising; or it is a word denoting promising or threatening: it is syn. with سَ accord. to some, or has a larger meaning than this latter accord. to others. You say, سَوْفَ أَفْعَلُ [I will do such a thing]. And one may not introduce a separating word between it and its verb, [except in a case mentioned in what follows,] because it occupies the place of the س in سَيَفْعَلُ [&c.]. [But] it is distinct from سَ by its [sometimes] having ل prefixed to it; as in [the phrase in the Kur xciii. 5], وَلَسَوْفَ يُعْطِيكَ رَبُّكَ فَتَرْضَى [And thy Lord will give thee, and thou wilt be well pleased]: in this phrase, [however,] the ل is [considered as] pre- fixed to the verb, not to the particle: or the phrase is elliptical, for لَأَنْتَ سَوْفَ يُعْطِيكَ. And it is distinct from سَ in this, that it is sometimes separated [from its verb] by a verb divested of government both as to the letter and the meaning; as in the saying, وَمَا أَدْرِى وَسَوْفَ إِخَالُ أَدْرِى أَقَوْمٌ آلُ حِصْنٍ أَمْ نِسَآءُ [And I know not, but I shall, I think, know, whether the family of Hisn be a company of men or women].
2 When you desire to make it a subst., [i. e. to use it as a subst.,] you make it to have tenween [when it is indeterminate]. IDrd cites as an ex., إِنَّ سَوْفًا وَإِنَّ لَيْتًا عَنَآءٌ [Verily سَوْفَ and verily لَيْتَ are a weariness]: but one reading is إِنَّ لَوًّا; and another, إِنَّ لَيْتًا وإِنَّ لَوًّا; and there is no such reading as إِنَّ سَوْفًا. One says also, فُلَانٌ يَقْتَاتُ السَّوْفَ [lit. Such a one feeds upon the word سَوْفَ]; meaning Such a one lives by means of things hoped for: and in like manner, مَا قُوتُهُ إِلَّا السَّوْفُ [lit. His food is not anything but, or other than, the word سَوْفَ].
3 In the following verse of Ibn-Mukbil, cited by Sb, لَوْ بِسَوْفٍ مِنْ تَحِيَّتِهَا سَوْفَ العَيُوفِ لَرَاحَ الرَّكْبُ قَدْ قَنِعَا [Had she put us off with a سَوْفَ as part of her greeting, with the putting off even of such as is affected with dislike, the riders had gone contented], سَوْفَ is put in the accus. case [for مُسَاوَفَةَ, i. e.] as an Verbal.Noun with the augmentation [meaning the augmentative letters] rejected.

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Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon

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