Classical Arabic - English Dictionary

نَسْنَاسٌ (Ṣ, M, Mṣb, Ḳ) and نِسْنَاسٌ (Ḳ) A kind of creatures (خَلْق [an appellation often applied particularly to human beings]) whereof [every] one jumps, or hops, upon one leg: (Ṣ, Mṣb, Ḳ:) it is related in a trad., that a tribe of 'Ád disobeyed their apostle, and that God thereupon transformed them into نَسْنَاس, every man of them having a [single] arm and a [single] leg, [consisting] of one half [of a human being], hopping like as the bird hops, and pasturing like as beasts pasture; (Ḳ;) and these are found in the islands of China: (TA:) or, as some say, these have become extinct; (Ḳ;) for a transformed being lives not more than three days, as the learned have established; (TA;) and what exist now, of this make, are a distinct class of creatures: (Ḳ:) or they are of three kinds; نَاسٌ and نَسْنَاسٌ and نَسَانِسُ; (Ḳ;) and the second of these are the baser sort; (TA;) or the نسانس are the females of them, (Ḳ,) as Aboo-Saʼeed Ed-Dareer says; (TA;) or they are of higher rank than the نسناس, (Ḳ,) as is said in the O: (TA:) or the نسناس are [the peoples called] Yájooj and Májooj: (IAạr, Mṣb, Ḳ:) or a certain people of the sons of Adam: (Ḳ:) or certain creatures in the form of men, (M, Ḳ,) so called because of the weakness of their make, from نَسْنَسَةٌ, which signifies weakness, (M,) differing from men in some things, and not of them: (Ḳ:) or, accord. to what is said [by some], a certain beast, reckoned among wild animals, that is hunted and eaten, having the form of a man with one eye and leg and arm, and that speaks like man: (Kr, M:) or a species of marine animal: (Mṣb:) or, accord. to El-Mesʼoodee, an animal like a man having one eye, that comes forth from the water, and speaks, and, when it gets a man within its power, kills him: or, as is related in the مجالسة, on the authority of Ibn-Is-ḥáḳ, certain creatures (خَلْقٌ) in El-Yemen: ابن الرقيس says, that they are of the sons of Sám the son of Sám, brothers of 'Ád and Thamood, not possessing reason, living in the salt-water (الاجاج) on the coast of the Sea of India: the Arabs hunt them, and speak to them, and they speak the Arabic language, and propagate one with another, and poetize, or versify, and name themselves by the names of the Arabs: (TA:) [in the present day, this appellation is applied to a pigmy: and also, to an ape:] Es-Suyootee says, in the Deewán el-Hayawán, as to the animal which the vulgar call نسناس, it is a species of apes or monkeys, not living in water, and the eating of which is unlawful: but as to the marine animal, some hold it to be lawful; whereas the sheykh Aboo-Hámid holds the eating of the نسناس [of any kind] to be unlawful, because it has the form of the sons of Adam. (TA.) It is said in a trad. of Aboo-Hureyreh, ذَهَبَ النَّاسُ وَبَقِىَ النَّسْنَاسُ [The men have gone, and the نسناس remain]. Being asked who were the نسناس, he answered, Those who affect to be like men but are not men. (TA.) [For the verb نسّ, &c.: see Supplement.]

نَسْنَسَتِ الرِّيحُ The wind blew coldly: see R. Q. 1 in art. سن.

رِيحٌ نَسْنَاسَةٌ A cold wind: see سَنْسَانَةٌ.