Classical Arabic - English Dictionary

حَتَفَ, aor. ـِ {يَحْتِفُ}, is a verb mentioned by IḲooṭ and IḲṭṭ and others, as derived from حَتْفٌ signifying “death,” though J says that no verb is formed from this word; as IF and Meyd and Az also assert: (MF, TA:) and حُتُوفٌ is its inf. n., as well as pl. of حَتْفٌ: [accord. to SM, it is intrans., signifying He died; for he says,] hence the saying in the A, المَرْءُ يَسْعَى وَيَطُوفُ وَعَاقِبَتُهُ الحُتُوفُ [Man labours, and goes about: and his end is dying]. (TA.) [But see what follows.]

IF says that no verb is formed from حَتْفٌ signifying “death;” and so, after him, J; and Az says that he had heard no such verb: but IḲooṭ mentions حَتَفَهُ, aor. ـِ {يَحْتِفُ}, inf. n. حَتْفٌ, as signifying He, or it, killed him; or caused him to die. (Mṣb.)

حَتْفٌ Death: (Ṣ, Mṣb, Ḳ, &c.:) pl. حُتُوفٌ. (Ṣ, Ḳ.) You say, مَاتَ حَتْفَ أَنْفِهِ, (AʼObeyd, Ṣ, Mgh, Mṣb, Ḳ,) and حَتْفَ فِيهِ, but this is rare, and حَتْفَ أَنْفَيْهِ, (Ḳ,) which may mean مَنْخِرَيْهِ, or it may mean أَنْفه وَفَمه, the انف being made predominant, (TA,) He died upon his bed; (AʼObeyd, Mgh, Mṣb, Ḳ;) [a natural death;] respiring until he yielded his last breath; (Mṣb;) not from slaughter, nor beating, (AʼObeyd, Ṣ, Mṣb, Ḳ,) nor drowning, nor burning, (AʼObeyd, Ṣgh, Mṣb, Ḳ,) nor by a wild beast, &c.: (AʼObeyd, TA:) the nose is particularized as meaning that the spirit passes forth from it with the breath; or because they imagined that the spirit of the sick man passes forth from his nose, and that of the wounded man from his wound; (IAth, Ḳ;) or because the spirit passes forth from the mouth and the nose, and the latter of these is made predominant: (O, TA:) and حتف is put in the accus. case in the manner of an inf. n. (TA.) This phrase was used in the time of paganism, by Es-Semow-al: (Mṣb, TA:) or, accord. to some, in the phrase attributed to him, the right reading is not مات حتف انفه, but مات فِى فِرَاشِهِ; and the former was first used by Moḥammad. (Ḥam p. 52.) It is said of a human being: (Ṣ, Mgh:) and then of any animal when it dies without any accidental cause: (Mgh:) hence, of a fish that has died, and floats upon the water. (Mṣb, TA.) It is said in a trad. of 'Ámir Ibn-Fuheyreh,

* وَالمَرْءُ يَأْتِى حَتْفُهُ مِنْ فَوْقِهِ *

[And man, his death comes from above him]: meaning that his caution and his cowardice will not repel from him the decree of death when it befalls him: originally said by ʼAmr Ibn-Mámeh. (L, TA.)

حَيَّةٌ حَتْفَةٌ [A dead serpent] is a phrase like اِمْرَأَةٌ عَدْلَةٌ: (Z, TA:) the latter word is here an epithet. (Z, Ḳ.)