شَيْبٌ
Root: شيب
Full Definition
شَيْبٌ
The hair itself: sometimes it is thus called: [but app. only when white, or hoary; in which sense it is often used; as in the TA in arts. خضب and صبغ &c.:] or whiteness of the hair, or hoariness; as also
مَشِيبٌ : both signify the same [and are thus used as simple substs. and are also inf. ns.]: or the former has the latter of the two significations given above; and is little and much [whiteness of the hair]: one says, عَلَاهُ الشَّيْبُ [Whiteness of the hair, or hoariness, came upon him]: but
مَشِيبٌ signifies a man's entering upon the period of whiteness of the hair, or hoariness: see an ex. of this latter in the first paragraph. In the phrase in the Kur [xix. 3], وَٱشْتَعَلَ الرَّأْسُ شَيْبًا, meaning And whiteness of the hair of the head hath spread therein like as the radiance of fire spreads in firewood, [or the head has become glistening with whiteness of the hair, or hoariness,] شيبا is in the accus. case as a specificative: or, accord. to Akh, as an Verbal.Noun, as though it were said وَشَابَ الرَّأْسُ شَيْبًا.