Classical Arabic - English Dictionary

شَآءَهُ, (Mṣb,) [originally شَيِئَهُ,] like خَافَهُ, [which is originally خَوِفَهُ,] (MF,) first. pers. شِئْتُهُ, (Ṣ, Ḳ,) aor. يَشَاؤُهُ, (Mṣb,) [and by poetic license يَشَاهُ, without ء,] first pers. أَشَاؤُهُ, (Ṣ. Ḳ,) inf. n. شَىْءٌ (Mṣb, Ḳ) and مَشِيْئَةٌ, (Ṣ,* Ḳ,) or this is a simple subst., (Mṣb,) and مَشَآءَةٌ and مَشَائِيَةٌ, (Ḳ,) [or these two also are simple substs.,] He, and I, willed, wished, or desired, it; syn. أَرَادَهُ (Mṣb) and أَرَدْتُهُ: (Ṣ,* Ḳ:) most of the scholastic theologians make no difference between المَشِيْئَةُ and الإِرَادَةُ, though they are [said to be] originally different; for the former, in the proper language, signifies the causing to be or exist, syn. الإِيجَادُ; and the latter, the willing, wishing, or desiring; syn. الطَّلَبُ. (TA.) A Jew objected, to the Prophet, his people's saying مَا شَآءَ ٱللّٰهُ وَشِئْتُ [What God hath willed and I have willed], as implying the association of another being with God: therefore the Prophet ordered them to say مَا شَآءَ ٱللّٰهُ ثُمَّ شِئْتُ [What God hath willed, then I have willed]. (TA.) [مَا شَآءَ ٱللّٰهُ as signifying What hath God willed! is used to express admiration. And as signifying What God willed it is a phrase often used to denote a vague, generally a great or considerable, but sometimes a small, number or quantity or time: See De Sacy's Relation de l'Égypte par Abdallatif, pp. 246 and 394, &c.]

See also 1 in art. شوأ

شَيَّأْتُهُ عَلَى الأَمْرِ [in some copies of the Ḳ (erroneously) شِئْتُهُ] I incited him, or made him, to do the thing, or affair. (Aṣ, Ṣ, L, Ḳ, TA.)

And شَيَّأَ ٱللّٰهُ وَجْهَهُ, (Ḳ, TA,) and خَلْقَهُ, (TA,) God rendered, or may God render, foul, unseemly, or ugly, his face, (Ḳ, TA,) and his make. (TA.)

أَشَآءَهُ إِلَيْهِ He, or it, compelled him, constrained him, or necessitated him, to have recourse, or betake himself, to it; syn. أَلْجَأَهُ; (Ṣ, Ḳ;) a dial. var. of أَجَآءَهُ; (Ṣ;) of the dial. of Temeem. (TA.) Temeem say, شَرٌّ مَا يُشِيؤُكَ إِلَى مُخَّةِ عُرْقُوبٍ, meaning يُجِيؤُكَ [q. v., i. e. It is an evil thing that compels thee to have recourse to the marrow of a hock]. (Ṣ.)

تشيّأ His anger became appeased: (Ḳ:) said of a man. (TA.)

شَىْءٌ [A thing; anything; something; somewhat;] a word of well-known meaning: (Ḳ:) [sometimes, in poetry, written and pronounced شَىٌّ: see an ex. in a verse cited voce صُؤَابَةٌ: see also the last sentence but one of this paragraph:] الشَّىْءُ properly signifies what may be known, and that whereof a thing may be predicated: (Mgh, KT:) accord. to Sb, it denotes existence, and is a name for anything that has been made to have being, whether an accident, or attribute, or a substance, and such that it may be known, and that a thing may be predicated thereof: (KT:) MF says that it is app. an inf. n. used in the sense of a pass. part. n., meaning what is willed, and meant, or intended, [in which sense مَشِيْئَةٌ↓ (pl. مَشِيْآتٌ) is often used,] without restriction to its actuality or possibility of being, so that it applies to that which necessarily is, and that which may be, and that which cannot be; accord. to the opinion adopted by the author of the Ksh: [or, as an inf. n. in the sense of a pass. part. n., it may be expl., agreeably with what is said to be the proper meaning of the verb, as signifying what is caused to be or exist; accordingly,] Er-Rághib says that it denotes whatever is caused to be or exist, whether sensibly, as material substances, or ideally, as sayings; and Bḍ and others expressly assert that it signifies peculiarly what is caused to be or exist; but Sb says that it is the most general of general terms; and some of the scholastic theologians apply it to what is non-existent; such, however, are overcome in their argument by its not being found to have been thus used by the Arabs, and by such passages as كُلُّ شَىْءٍ هَالِكٌ إِلَّا وَجْهَهُ [Everything is subject to perish except Himself (Ḳur xxviii. last verse)] and وَإِنْ مِنْ شَىْءٍ إِلَّا يُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِهِ [And there is not anything but it glorifies Him with praising (Ḳur xvii. 46)], for what is nonexistent cannot be described as perishing nor imagined to glorify God: (TA:) the pl. is أَشْيَآءُ, (Ṣ, Mṣb, Ḳ, &c.,) imperfectly decl., (Mṣb, TA,) or rather this is a quasi-pl. n., (Sb, TA,) respecting the formation of which there is much difference of opinion [as will be shown hereafter], (Mṣb, TA,) and أَشْيَاوَاتٌ, (Ṣ, Ḳ,) a pl. pl. [i. e. pl. of أَشْيَآءٌ], (MF, TA,) and أَشَاوَاتٌ, [a contraction of that next preceding,] (Ḳ,) and أَشَاوَى, (Ṣ, Ḳ,) with fet-ḥ to the و, (MF, TA,) and it is also mentioned as with kesr, (TA,) [and is written in both of my copies of the Ṣ أَشَاوَى, though if with kesr it should be either أَشَاوٍ or أَشَاوِىُّ, but أَشَاوَى only is meant by J, as is shown by what here follows,] originally أَشَايِىُّ, with three ى s, not أَشَائِىُّ as J says, [or rather as the word is written in copies of the Ṣ, for J may have held it to be أَشَائِىُّ or أَشَايِىْءُ, as he says that the ء was changed into ى thus occasioning the combination of three ى s, so that he held its secondary form to be أَشَايِىُّ, as will presently be shown,] because the first ى is radical, not augmentative, (IB, Ḳ,) the medial ى of the three being suppressed, and the final one changed into ا [though written ى], and the initial one changed into و, (Ṣ,) and another form of pl. is أَشَايَا, (Ṣ, Mṣb, Ḳ,) with the ى preserved, not changed into و [as it is in أَشَاوَى], (TA,) [likewise] a pl. of أَشْيَآءُ, (Mṣb,) and أَشَيَايَا also is mentioned, (Ḳ,) as formed [from أَشْيَآءُ] by the change of ء into ى and adding ا, (TA,) and أَشَاوِهُ, which is strange, (Lḥ, Ḳ,) as there is no ه in أَشَيَآءُ, (Lḥ,) or in شَىْءٌ: (Ḳ:) with respect to the first of these forms, [the quasi-pl. n.] أَشَيَآءُ, the most probable opinion is that of Kh: (Mṣb, TA:) accord. to him, (Ṣ, Mṣb, Ḳ,) it is originally of the measure فَعْلَآءُ, (Ṣ, Ḳ,*) in lieu of أَفْعَالٌ, (Ḳ,) and therefore imperfectly decl., (Ṣ,) [i. e.] it is originally شَيْئَآءُ, (Mṣb,) and the two hemzehs combined in the latter portion being found difficult of pronunciation, the former of them is transposed to the beginning of the word, so that it becomes of the measure لَفْعَآءُ, (Ṣ, Mṣb,) as is shown by its having for its pls. أَشَاوَى and أَشَايَا and أَشْيَاوَاتٌ: (Ṣ:) accord. to Akh, it is [originally] of the measure أَفْعِلَآءُ; (Ṣ, Ḳ;) but if it were thus a broken pl., [not a quasi-pl. n.,] its dim. would not be أُشْيَّآءُ↓, as it is, but شُيَيْآتٌ: (Ṣ:) accord. to Ks, it is of the measure أَفْعَالٌ, and made imperfectly decl. because of frequency of usage, being likened to فَعْلَآءُ; but were it so, أَبْنَآء and أَسْمَآء would be imperfectly decl.: (Ṣ, Ḳ:) accord. to Fr, شَىْءٌ is originally شَيِّئٌ, and therefore has a pl. of the measure أَفْعِلَآءُ, afterwards contracted to فَعْلَآءُ; but were it so, it would not have for its pl. أَشَاوَى. (Ṣ. [Much more respecting this pl. is added in the TA, but it is comparatively unprofitable.]) The dim. of شَىْءٌ isشُيَىْءٌ↓ andشِيَىْءٌ↓; (Ṣ, Ḳ, TA, but only the former in some copies of the Ḳ, the word being written in other copies شُيَىْءٌ / شِيَىْءٌ;) notشُوَىٌّ↓, orشُوَىْءٌ↓; (the former accord. to my two copies of the Ṣ and accord. to the copies of the Ḳ followed in the TA, in which it is said to be with teshdeed to the ى, and the latter accord. to the CK and my MṢ. copy of the Ḳ;) or this is a dial. var. of weak authority, (Ḳ,) used by post-classical poets in their verses. (MF, TA.)

When a man says to thee, “What dost thou desire?” thou answerest, لَا شَيْئًا [Nothing]: and when he says, “Why didst thou that?” thou answerest, لِلَا شَىْءٍ [For nothing]: and when he says, “What is thine affair?” thou answerest, لَا شَىْءٌ [Nothing]: it is with tenween in every one of these cases. (Aṣ, AḤát, TA.) [When one says لَا شَىْءَ, he means thereby There is nothing.]

لَيْسَ بِشَىْءٍ means [It is nought, of no account or weight; it is not worthy of notice, or not worth anything;] it is not a good thing; or it is not a thing to be regarded. (W p. 27.)

[لَيْسَ مِنَ الأَمْرِ فِى شَىْءٍ is a phrase of frequent occurrence, meaning He has no concern with the affair; see two exs. in the first paragraph {1} of art. حوص.]

[فِيهِ شَىْءٌ مِنَ الطُّولِ occurs in the TA voce حُسْبَانَةٌ, meaning In it is somewhat, or some degree, of length; i. e. it is somewhat long; and is used in the present day in this sense.]

In the phrase هُوَ أَحْسَنُ مِنْكَ شَيْئًا, the last word is for بِشَىْءٍ [i. e. He is better than thou in something; meaning he is somewhat better than thou]. (IJ, L.)

مَا أَغْفَلَهُ عَنْكَ شَيْئًا is a phrase of the Arabs [app. lit. signifying How unmindful of thee is he as to anything!] mentioned by Sb as meaning دَعِ الشَّكَّ عَنْكَ [Dismiss doubt from thee (respecting him as to anything)]: IJ says that شيئا is here put in the accus. case as an inf. n., as though the saying were مَا أَغْفَلَهُ عَنْكَ غُفُولًا, because the verb of wonder does not require to be corroborated by the inf. n. [proper to it]: (L, TA:) [or it is a specificative:] IF says that it is a phrase of dubious meaning; and that the most probable explanation of it is this; that ما is here lit. interrogative, but in meaning denotative of wonder; and that شيئا is governed in the accus. case by some other word, or phrase, as though the saying were dismiss a thing by which he is not occupied in mind, and dismiss doubt as to his being occupied in mind by it. (TA in art. ما.)

[شَيْئًا فَشَيْئًا means Thing by thing, part by part, bit by bit, piecemeal, inch by inch, drop by drop, little and little in succession, by little and little, by degrees or gradually.]

أَىُّ شَىْءٍ [meaning What thing?] is, by the alleviation of the ى [in اىّ] and the suppression of the ء [in شىء], made into one word, أَيْشَىْ: so says El-Fárábee: (Mṣb:) or, [as is commonly the case in the present day,] by reason of frequency of usage, it is contracted into أَيْشَ. (TA in art. جرم, as on the authority of Ks.)

شَىْءٌ in the Ḳur lx. 11 may mean Any one (Bḍ, Jel) or more. (Jel.)

[It is also applied to † The penis of a man; as in the explanation of a phrase mentioned voce ذَنَبٌ; like as its syn. هَنٌ is to the same and (more commonly) to the “vulva” of a woman.]

In algebra, it signifies [A square root;] a number that is multiplied into itself; which in arithmetic [and in algebra also] is called جذر [i. e. جَذْرٌ]; and in geometry, ضلع [i. e. ضِلْعٌ or ضِلَعٌ]; (“Dict. of the Techn. Terms used in the Sciences of the Musalmans,” p. 202;) an unknown number that is multiplied into itself. (Idem, p. 730.)

It is also said, on the authority of Lth, to signify Water: and he cites as an ex.,

* تَرَى رَكْبَهُ بِالشَّىْءِ فِى وَسْطِ قَفْرَةٍ *

[Thou seest, or wilt see, his company of riders at the water in the midst of a desert]: but AM says, I know not الشىء in the sense of “water,” nor know I what it is. (TA.)

يَا شَىْءَ is an expression of regret, (El-Aḥmar, Ks, TA,) or of wonder, (Ḳ, TA,) [or of both,] meaning [Oh! or] O my wonder! (Ks, Lḥ, TA.) One says, يَا شَىْءَ مَا لِى, (El-Aḥmar, Ks, Lḥ, Ḳ,) and يَا شَىَّ مَا لِى, i. e. with and without ء, (Ks, TA,) and يَا هَىْءَ مَا لِى, (Lḥ, Ḳ,) يا هَىَّ ما لى, and يَا فَىَّ ما لى, (El-Aḥmar, Ks, TA,) neither of these two with ء, (Ks, TA,) [meaning Oh! or O my wonder! What has happened to me?] in all of these, (Ks, TA,) ما being in the place of a noun in the nom. case. (Ks, Lḥ, TA.)

Some also say, يَا شَىْءَ and يَا هَىَّ and يَا فَىَّ, and some add مَا, saying, يَا شَىْءَ مَا and يَا هَىَّ مَا and يَا فَىَّ مَا, meaning How good, or beautiful, is this! (Ks, TA.)

شِيْئَةٌ [Will, wish, or desire,] a subst. from شَآءَهُ, (Lḥ, Ḳ,) [and] so is مَشِيْئَةٌ↓ [which is mentioned in the Ḳ as an inf. n.]. (Mṣb.) One says, كُلُّ شَىْءٍ بِشِيْئَةِ ٱللّٰهِ, (Ṣ, Ḳ,) i. e.بَمِشِيْئَتِهِ↓ [Everything is by the will of God]. (Ṣ.)

مُشَيَّأٌ Incongruous, unsound, (Ḳ, TA,) foul, or ugly, (TA,) in make, or formation. (Ḳ, TA. [See Ḥam p. 192.])

And accord. to Aboo-Saʼeed, A child born preposterously, the legs coming forth before the arms. (TA.)