Classical Arabic - English Dictionary

لَاتَهُ, aor. يَليِتُ, (inf. n. لَيْتٌ, Ṣ,) as also لَاتَةُ, aor. يَلُوتُ; or لَاتَهُ عَنْ وَجْهِهِ; as alsoأَلَاتَهُ↓; (and أَلَتَهُ; Ṣ, Ḳ, art. أَلت;) He withheld him, or restrained him, and turned him, or averted him, from his course, purpose, or object. (Ṣ, Ḳ.) The Rájiz says,

* وَلَيْلَةٍ ذَاتِ دُجًا سَرَيْتُ *

* وَلَمْ يَلِتْنِى عَنْ سُرَاهَا لَيْتُ *

[During many a dark night (or many a rainy, or wet, night, accord. to the reading in the TA, namely ذات نَدًى) have I journeyed;] and no hindrance hindered me from journeying during it: (Ṣ:) or the meaning is

and no averting thing averted me, &c.; لَيْتُ being put for لَائِتُ: or, nothing made me to repent, and say, لَيْتَنِى مَا سَرَيْتُهَا Would that I had not journeyed during it! or, no deficiency, nor any impotence, averted me, &c., accord. to the T. (TA.)

لَاتَهُ حَقَّهُ, aor. يَلِيتُ, inf. n. لَيْتٌ; andأَلَاتَهُ↓; but the former is the more approved; as also أَلَاتَهُ and أَلِتهُ; He diminished unto him his due, or right: [or defrauded him of part thereof.]. (TA.) It is said in the Ḳur, [xlix. 14,] لَايَلِتْكُمْ مِنْ أَعْمَالِكُمْ شَيْئًا He will not diminish unto you, nor defraud you of, aught [of the reward] of your works. (Fr, Zj.)

مَا أَلَانَهُ شَيْئًا; as also مَا أَلَتَهُ (and مَا أَلتَهُ; TA;) He did not diminish unto him aught. (Fr, Ṣ, Ḳ.) In مَا أَلَتْنَاهُمْ مِنْ عَمَلِهِمْ مِنْ شَىْءٍ, in the Ḳur, [lii. 21, q. v. in art. ألت.] the verb may be from أَلَتَ or from أَلَاتَ. (TA.)

بِتُّ أُلِيتُ↓ الحَقَّ in a verse of 'Orweh Ibn-El-Ward, signifies أُحِيلُهُ and أُصْرِفُهُ [I passed the night putting away (from my mind the thought of) death: the poet having just before mentioned the death of certain of his camels]. (Sh, L.)

In the following saying, الحَمْدُ لِلّٰهِ الَّذِى لَا يُفَاتُ وَلَا يَلَاتُ وَلَا تَشْتَبِهُ عَلَيْهِ الأَصْوَاتُ [Praise be to God, whom nothing will escape, (lit., who will not be escaped, see Ḳur xxxiv. 50, and 1 in art. فوت,) and to whom voices will not be confused, or undistinguishable, one from another!], لا يلات is from أَلَاتَ, a dial. var. of لَاتَ, aor. يلِيتُ, in the sense of نَقَصَ, and signifies unto whom one cannot diminish [aught that is his due], and whom prayer cannot be hindered from reaching: so accord. to IAạr: or, accord. to Khálid Ibn Jembeh, upon whom nothing that any one saith can have any power; (expl. by لا يأخد فيه قول قائل;) i. e., who obeyeth no one. (L.)

لَاتَ شَيْاً, aor. يَلِيتُ, He concealed a thing that he knew, and told, or narrated, something different from it. (TA, art. لوث, q. v.)

لَاتَهُ, aor. يَلِيتُ, inf. n. لَيْتٌ, He expressed to him the news, or information, obscurely, or enigmatically, or obscured it to him, or concealed it from him: so accord. to Aṣ, and the like is said in the L: but accord. to some, the verb is لَاتَهُ, aor. يَلُوتُ, q. v., in art. لوت. (TA, art. لوت)

وَلَاتَ حِينَ مَنَاصٍ, occurring in the Ḳur, [xxxviii. 2,] (Ṣ,) [there meaning, accord. to the general opinion, When (it, or the time,) was not a time of flight: in other cases, and (it, or the time,) is, or was, not a time of flight]. لات is here likened to لَيْسَ; and the name of the agent is understood. (Ṣ, Ḳ.) So says Akh, accord. to J; but this is the opinion of Sb: so in the margin of some copies of the Ṣ. (TA.) Or لات is originally لا; and the ت is added, as in ثُمَّتَ [in the CK, ثَمَّت,] (El-Muärrij, Ṣ, Ḳ,) and رُبَّتَ. (El-Muärrij, Ṣ.)

With respect to the proper meaning and etymology of لات there are four opinions. First, that it is a single word, a verb in the pret. tense: and some say, that it is originally لَاتَ in the sense of نَقَصَ, and afterwards used as a negative, like قَلَّ: so says Aboo-Dharr El-Khushanee, in his Expos. of the Book of Sb: others, that it is originally لَيِسَ; that its س is changed into ت, and then the ى into ا, because it is movent and preceded by fet-ḥah: so says Abu-r-Rabeea. Second, that it is two words, the negative لا, with the fem. ت, added to make the word fem., as say IHsh and Er-Raḍee, or to render the negation more intensive, as is said in the Expos. of the Katr by the author of the latter work: and this is the general opinion. Third, that it is an independent word, not originally ليس nor لا; as related by the sheykh Aboo-Is- hák Esh-Sháṭibee alone. Fourth, that it is a word and a part of a word, namely the negative لا, and ت prefixed to حين; which opinion is ascribed to AʼObeyd [as is mentioned in the Ṣ] and Ibn-El-Taráweh: the former of whom argues in favour of this opinion from the fact that ت is found so prefixed in Othmán's copy of the Ḳur-án; but this is no proof, because there are found in the writing of that copy things at variance with analogy. (TA.) تَحِينَ [however] occurs, without لات, in the following verse of Aboo-Wejzeh:

* العَاطِفُونَ تَحِينَ مَا مِنْ عَاطِفٍ *

* وَالمُطْعِمُونَ زَمَانَ أَيْنَ المُطْعِمُ *

[The persons who act affectionately in the time when there is none (other) that acts affectionately; and the feeders in the time when (it is said) Where is the feeder?] (Ṣ.) The general opinion is favoured by the following facts: that لات is pronounced in a case of pause لَاتْ and لَاهْ: that it is written separately from حين: and that it is sometimes written لَاتِ, with kesreh to the ت, as is mentioned by Z, agreeably with the fundamental rule with respect to the concurrence of two quiescent letters [when followed by a conjunctive ا]; whereas, were it a verb in the pret. tense, there would be no reason for its being written with kesreh: it is also written لَاتُ, with ḍammeh to the ت: and both these variations occur in readings of the Ḳur-án: but لَاتَ, with fet-ḥah to the ت, is the most common. (TA.)

With respect to its government there are also four opinions. First, that it has no government: that if a noun in the nom. case follow it, it is put in that case as an inchoative of which [as is mentioned in the Ṣ] the enunciative is suppressed; and that if a noun in the acc. case follow it, it is put in that case as an objective complement of a verb suppressed; which is the opinion of Akh; the meaning of لات حين مناص being, in the former case, لاحِينُ مَنَاصٍ كَائِنٌ لَهُمْ [A place of flight not existing for them; which does not imply that there was none for others; as لا here has the force of a particular, not a general, negation]; and in the latter case, the meaning being, لَا أَرَى حِينَ مَنَاصٍ [I see not a time of flight]. Second, that it governs in the same manner as إِنَّ; which is another opinion of Akh and the Koofees. Third, that it is a particle governing the gen. case; an opinion ascribed to Fr by Er-Raḍee and IHsh and others. Fourth, that it governs like لَيْسَ; and this is the general opinion; but IHsh restricts it by two conditions; that the two nouns which it governs must be significant of time, and that one of them must be suppressed. (TA.) [It is generally the subject, rarely the predicate, that is suppressed.]

لات [when it has grammatical government] does not occur without حين [or, as many say, some word syn. therewith, as وَقْت, &c.]. (Ṣ, Ḳ.) So says Akh, accord. to J; but this is the assertion of Sb; because the latter holds it to have the same government as ليس; whereas Akh assigns to it no government [as explained above]. (IB.) But [it is said that] حين is sometimes suppressed, (in poetry, Ṣ, [or in prose,]) though meant to be understood; as in the following saying of Mázin Ibn-Málik, [respecting ʼAbd-Shems, surnamed Makrooa, the son of Saạd the son of Zeyd-Menáh the son of Temeem, and respecting Heyjumáneh the daughter of El-'Ambar the son of ʼAmr the son of Temeem, (Ṣ, art. قرع,) who was enamoured of Makrooa,] وَحَنَّتْ وَلَاتَ هَنَّتْ وَأَنَّى لَكِ مَقْرُوعٌ [And she conceived a longing desire; but it was not a time for her conceiving such a desire. And how (O Heyjumáneh) should Makrooa be thine? See Freytag, Arab. Prov. i. 343 and ii. 525.] (Ṣ, Ḳ.) This, however, is said to be not poetry but a prose-example. (TA.) Moreover, it is observed, that لات, in this instance, has no government, and that a word signifying time is not meant to be understood after it: [so that the meaning is, And she conceived a longing desire, but it was as though she did not conceive such a desire:] (MF.) for when لات has government, the subject and predicate cannot both be suppressed. (AḤei, MF.)

لَيْتَ a word denoting a wish [signifying Would that …; I wish that …;] (Ṣ, Ḳ;) generally relating to a thing that is impossible; rarely to a thing that is possible: (IHsh, Ḳ:) governing the subject in the acc. case, and the predicate in the nom. case, (Ṣ, Ḳ,) like كَأَنَّ (or [rather] إِنَّ, MF) and its coordinates, because it resembles verbs in their force as words, [being composed of at least three letters, and the last being meftoohah,] and in their admitting most of the pronouns as affixes, and in their meanings. (Ṣ.) Ex. لَيْتَ زَيْدًا ذَاهِبٌ [Would that Zeyd were going;] (Ṣ;) and لَيْتَنِى فَعَلْتُ كَذَا وَكَذَا [Would that I had done so and so.] (TA.) You say لَيْتِى as well as لَيْتَنِى, (Ṣ, Ḳ,) like لَعَلِّى and لَعَلَّنِى, and إِنِّى and إِنَّنِى: (Ṣ:) but ليتنى is more common than ليتى; whereas لعلّنى is less common than لعلّى. (TA.) You also say يَا لَيْتَ [O, would that ….] As to the saying of the poet,

* يَا لَيْتَ أَيَّامَ الصِّبَا رَوَاجِعَا *

meaning لَنَا رَوَاجِعَ, [O, would that the days of youth were returning (to us)!] رواجع is put in the acc. case therein as a word descriptive of state: (Ṣ:) or it is governed in the acc. case by a verb understood, as أَقْبَلَتْ, or عَادَتْ, or some other verb suitable to the meaning: so says Sb: (TA:) or ليت in the above verse may be used in the manner of وَجَدْتُ, [see below], (Ṣ,) for ليت is sometimes used in the manner of وَجَدْتُ [I found], (Fr, Ṣ, Ḳ,) in government, not in meaning, (MF,) as related by the grammarians on the authority of certain of the Arabs, so that it is doubly transitive, and used in the manner of verbs: (Ṣ:) you say, لَيْتَ زَيْدًا شَاخِصًا [Would that Zeyd were going away, &c.]: (Ṣ, Ḳ:) this is done to give intensiveness: one says, for this purpose, لَيْتَ زَيْدًا قَائِمًا (Would that Zeyd were standing) putting both the subject and the predicate in the acc. case. (Mṣb.)

لَيْتَمَا: see De Sacy's Gr. Ar. ii. 63.

See also an ex. of ليت as a subst. voce سَوْفَ.

لِيتٌ The side of the neck: (Ṣ, Ḳ:) or the ليتَانِ are the lower parts of the two sides of the neck, upon which the earrings hang down, behind the two projections of the jaw-bones that are beneath the ear: or the parts of the neck beneath the earrings: or the places upon which the cuppinginstrument is applied; المَحْجَمَتَانِ: pl. أَلْيَاتٌ and ليتة [but whether the latter be لِيتَةٌ or لِيَتَةٌ is not shown]. (TA.)

أَصْغَى لِيتًا He inclined the side of his neck. (TA, from a trad.)