مَاشٌ

Full Definition

مَاشٌ [Indian peas;] a certain grain, well known, (S in art. ميش, and K,) round, smaller than the حِمَّص [or chick-pea], of a tawny colour inclining to greenness; it is in Syria and India; and is sown; also called مَجٌّ and خُلَّرٌ and زِنٌّ: (TA, art. مج:) it is of moderate temperature; and the mixture made thereof is commended, being beneficial to him who is fevered, and him who is affected with rheum; it is lenitive; and when cooked with vinegar, it is beneficial for purulent pustulous mange or scab; and an external application thereof strengthens feeble limbs: the word is arabicized [from the Persian مَاشْ], or postclassical.

def.2 Utensils and furniture, of the meaner sort, of a house or tent. Hence the saying, المَاشُ خَيْرٌ مِنْ لَاشَ, [in one copy of the K I find لَاشٍ, but the former seems to be the right reading,] meaning, Mean house- hold utensils and furniture are better than nothing; or] what is in the house, or tent, of worthless utensils and furniture, is better than its being empty: لاش is here contracted [from لَاشَىْءَ] for the sake of its resembling ماش. And خَاشَ مَاشَ and خَاشِ مَاشِ signify the same as مَاشٌ thus used: (K, TA in art. خوش:) or the refuse, or meanest sort, of people, or of mankind; as in the M.

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