Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon

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عَيْفَةٌ

Root: عيف

Full Definition

عَيْفَةٌ is a term employed in the case when a woman brings forth and her milk is suppressed in her breast, wherefore her fellow-wife, or female neighbour, draws it, by the single sucking and the two suckings: (Nh, O, L, K, * TA: but in the K, فَتَرْضِعُهَا is erroneously put for فَتَرْضِعُهُ; and المَرَّةَ and المَرَّتَيْنِ are put for المَرَّةَ and المَرَّتَيْنِ: TA:) thus in the saying of ElMugheereh, as expl. by himself, لَا تُحَرِّمُ العَيْفَةُ [i. e. The woman's sucking once and twice in drawing the breast of another woman whose milk is suppressed after child-birth will not render unlawful the marriage of either of them to a relation of the other, nor the marriage of a relation of either to a relation of the other; as the case of regular or continued suckling of a child does]: (O, K, TA: [but in the O and CK, تُحَرَّمُ is erroneously put for تُحَرِّمُ: see a similar saying voce مَزَّةٌ:]) the action is performed in order that the obstructed channels by which the milk issues may become opened: and it is thus termed because the woman loathes it: A'Obeyd says, We know not العَيْفَة in sucking the breast, but think it to be العُفَّة: his saying thus, however, is disapproved by Az.

def.2 عَيْفَةٌ is also the subst. from عَافَتِ الطَّيْرُ [q. v., app. signifying A circling of birds over the water, &c.].
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