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صَحْرَآءُ ذ , imperfectly decl., (S, K,) though not an epithet; (S;) or it is an epithet in which the quality of a subst. predominates; (TA;) and is imperfectly decl. because it is of the fem. gender, (S,) and because the letter characteristic of the fem. gender [namely the long ا] is inseparable from it, (S, K,) A desert; a waste; syn. بَرِّيَّةٌ: (S, Msb:) or a tract of land like the back of a beast, bare, or destitute of herbage, without trees and without hills and without mountains; smooth [throughout]: (ISh:) or a plain, or level tract of land, with smoothness and ruggedness, (A, K,) less [rugged] than what is termed قُفّ: (K:) or a spacious tract of ground in which is no herbage: (M, A, K:) or the most plain and even of land, whether it have produced herbage or not, not having any mountain or hill near it; as also جَهَادٌ: (ISh, TA in art. جهد:) you say صَحْرَآءُ وَاسِعَةٌ [a wide desert &c.]; (S;) but you do not say صَحْرَآءَةٌ, adding one fem. sign after another: (S, Msb:) the pls. are صَحَارِىُّ (S, Msb, K) and صَحَارٍ (S, M, Msb) [in the K, صَحَارِى, which, without the art. ال, and except when it is prefixed to another noun, and in a case of pausing, is a manifest mistake, as is shown in every complete treatise on inflection,] and صَحَارَى (S, Msb, K) and صَحْرَاوَاتٌ: (S, K:) the first of which four pls. occurs in poetry, and is the original form of the second: for when you form the pl. of صَحْرَآءُ, [which is originally صَحْرَاا,] you introduce an ا between the ح and the ر, and give kesr to the ر as in all similar cases: then the first ا which is after the ر [in صحراا] is changed into ى, because of the kesreh preceding it; and the second ا, which is the characteristic of the fem. gender, is also changed into ى, and incorporated into the former: then they reject the first ى, and change the second into ا, [though still writing it ى,] and say صَحَارَى, with fet-h to the ر, that the ا may not be elided in the case of tenween, [which the word would have if the ر were with kesr]; and this they do to distinguish between the ى that is changed from the ا which is a characteristic of the fem. gender and the ى that is changed from the ا which is not a characteristic of the fem. gender as the ا of مَرْمًى when they say مَرَامٍ: some of the Arabs, however, do not reject the first ى [in صَحَارِىُّ], but reject the second ى, and say الصَّحَارِى, with kesr to the ر, and هٰذِهِ صَحَارٍ, like as you say جَوَارٍ (S. [In the Ham, p. 54, صُحَرٌ is mentioned as a pl. of صَحْرَآءُ; but I think it doubtful.])
An Arabic-English Lexicon. London. Williams and Norgate. 1863.
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