مَسَآءَةٌ
an Verbal.Noun of سَآءَهُ: and [also a subst. signifying An evil, as being] a cause of grief or vexation; contr. ofمَسَرَّةٌ: originally مَسْوَأَةٌ: and therefore the pl. is
مَسَاوٍ, for مَسَاوِئُ; signifying also vices, faults, defects, or imperfections; and diseases; and acts of disobedience: so in the saying, بَدَتْ مَسَاوِيهِHis acts of disobedience, and vices, faults, &c., appeared: and الخَيْلُ تَجْرِى عَلَى مَسَاوِيهَاHorses run, notwithstanding their vices, or faults, &c., and diseases; for their generousness impels them to do so: and in like manner, the ingenuous generous man bears difficulties, and defends, or protects, what he is bound to defend or protect, or to regard as sacred, or inviolable, though he be weak, and practises generosity in all circumstances: or it is applied in relation to the protection and defence of what should be sacred, or inviolable, or of wives, or women under covert, and the members of one's household, notwithstanding harm, or injury, and fear: or it means that one may seek to defend himself by means of a man though there be in him qualities disapproved: but accord. to Lh, المَسَاوِى has no proper sing., like المَحَاسِنُ: accord. to some of the writers on inflection, it is the contr. of المَحَاسِنُ, and an anomalous pl. of السُّوْءُ, being originally with ء.
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