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خَيَالٌ خيال primarily signifies An incorporeal form or image; such as that which is imaged in sleep, and in the mirror, and in the heart or mind: then applied to the form of anything imaged; and to any subtile thing of a similar kind: (Er-Rághib, TA:) anything that one sees like a shadow: and the image of a man in a mirror, (T, Msb, TA,) and in water, (Msb,) and in sleep: (T, TA:) and a thing that sometimes passes by one, resembling a shadow: (T, Msb, TA:) خَيَالٌ and ↓ خَيَالَةٌ both signify the same; (JK, S, K;) i. e. i. q. طَيْفٌ [meaning an apparition; a phantom; a spectre; a fancied image; an imaginary form; and particularly a form that is seen in sleep]; (S, TA;) anything that one sees like a shadow [as the former word is explained above]; and a thing that is seen in sleep; (JK;) a form that is imaged to one in the mind when awake, and when dreaming: (K:) the former word is both masc. and fem.: (Ham p. 316:) pl. أَخِيلَةٌ (K) [a pl. of pauc.; and probably خِيلَانٌ also, as a pl. of mult., mentioned as one of the pls. of خَيَالٌ in another sense, below]. You say, تَخَيَّلَ لِى خَيَالُهُ [His apparition, or phantom, &c., became imaged to me in my mind]. (Msb, TA.) And a poet says, (S,) namely, El-Bohturee, (TA,) “ فَلَسْتُ بِنَازِلٍ إِِلَّا أَلَمَّتْ
الكَذُوبُ ↓ بِرَحْلِى أَوْ خَيَالَتُهَا
” [And I do not alight but she visits my abode, or her false apparition]. (S.) ― -b2- [In philosophy it signifies] A faculty that retains what the fancy perceives of the forms of objects of sense after the substance has become absent, so that the fancy beholds them whenever it turns towards them: thus it is the store-house of the fancy: its place is the hinder part of the first venter of [the three which are comprised by] the brain. (KT. [In this sense, it is incorrectly written in Freytag's Lex. (in which only the Arabic words of the explanation are given, preceded by the rendering “ phantasia, ”) خِيالٌ.]) ― -b3- The خَيَال of a bird is The shadow of himself which a bird sees when rising into the sky; whereupon he pounces down upon it, thinking it to be a prey, and finds it to be nothing: he is [the bird] called خَاطِفُ ظِلِّهِ. (TA.) ― -b4- خَيَالٌ and ↓ خَيَالَةٌ signify also The person, or body, or corporeal form or figure which one sees from a distance, syn. شَخْصٌ, (S, K,) of a man; and his aspect. (K.) ― -b5- And the former also signifies A piece of wood with black garments upon it, (S,) or with a black [garment of the kind called] كِسَآء upon it, (K,) which is set up to make the beasts and birds fancy it to be a man: (S, K:) or a piece of wood with a garment thrown upon it, which is set up for the sake of the sheep or goats, in order that the wolf, seeing it, may think it to be a man: (T, TA:) pl. [of pauc.] أَخِيلَةٌ (Ks, TA) and [of mult.] خِيلَانٌ. (TA.) A poet says, “ أَخِى لَا أَخَا لِى غَيْرُهُ غَيْرَ أَنَّنِى
كَرَاعِى خَيَالٍ يَسْتَطِيفُ بِلَافِكْرِ
” (S, TA) [cited by J as an ex. of خيال in the former of the senses explained in the sentence immediately preceding: but the meaning seems to be, My brother: I have no brother but he: but I am like one watching an image dressed up to decoy; going round about without reflection: for,] as some say, (TA,) رَاعِى الخَيَالِ means the young ostrich for which the sportsman sets up a خَيَال [i. e. an image dressed up to decoy], (JK, TA,) in order that it may become familiar therewith, and the sportsman may then take it, and the young ostrich may follow him. (TA.) ― -b6- Also A thing that is set up in land in order that it may be known to be prohibited to the public, and may not be approached. (T, Msb.) -A2- And A certain plant. (K.)
An Arabic-English Lexicon. London. Williams and Norgate. 1863.
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