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سَحَرٌ ذ : see سَحْرٌ, in two places. -A2- Also, (S, A, Mgh, Msb, K, &c.,) and ↓ سَحْرٌ , (TA,) and ↓ سُحُرٌ , (Msb,) and ↓ سَحَرِىٌّ , and ↓ سَحَرِيَّةٌ , (K,) (tropical:) The time a little before daybreak: (S, K:) or [simply] before daybreak: (Msb:) or the last part of the night: (Lth, Mgh:) or the last sixth of the night: (Mgh:) the pl. of سَحَرٌ (Msb) and of ↓ سَحْرٌ (TA) and of ↓ سُحُرٌ , (Msb,) is أَسْحَارٌ: (Msb, K, TA:) the سَحَر is thus met. called because it is the time of the departure of the night and the coming of the day; so that it is the مُتَنَفَّس [lit. the “ time of the breathing, ” by which is meant the “ shining forth, ”] of the dawn: (A:) there are two times of which each is thus called; one, which is [specially] called السَّحَرُ الأَعْلَى, [or the earlier سَحَر,] (A, Mgh,) is before daybreak; (Mgh;) or a little before daybreak: (A:) and the other, at daybreak: (A, Mgh:) like as one says “ the false dawn ” and “ the true: ” (A:) the earlier سَحَر is also called ↓ سُحْرَةٌ : (S, K:) or the سُحْرَة is the same as the سَحَر: or it is the last third of the night, to daybreak. (TA.) Using سَحَر indeterminately, you make it perfectly decl., and say, أَتَيْتُهُ بِسَحَرٍ [I came to him a little before daybreak], agreeably with the phrase in the Kur liv. 34; (S;) and in like manner, ↓ بِسُحْرَةٍ [in the earlier سَحَر]: (S, K:) you also say سَحَرًا, and ↓ سُحْرَةً , (A,) and سَحَرًا مِنَ الأَسْحَارِ: and مَا زَالَ عِنْدَنَا مُنْذُ السَّحَرِ [He ceased not to be with us, or at our abode, from a little before daybreak]: and لَقِيتُهُ بِالسَّحَرِ الأَعْلَى, and بِأَعْلَى سَحَرَيْنِ, and بِأَعْلَى السَّحَرَيْنِ, (TA,) and فِى أَعْلَى السَّحَرَيْنِ, (A, TA,) [I met him in the earlier سَحَر;] but بِأَعْلَى سَحَرٍ, a phrase used by El-'Ajjáj, is erroneous: (TA:) and هٰذِهِ اللَّيْلَةِ ↓ لَقِيتُهُ سَحَرِىَّ and ↓ سَحَرِيَّتَهَا [I met him in the time a little before daybreak of this last night]. (TA.) When, by سَحَر alone, you mean the سَحَر of the night immediately preceding, you say, لَقِيتُهُ سَحَرَ يَا هٰذَا [I met him a little before daybreak this last night, O thou man], (S, K,) making it imperfectly decl. because it is altered from السَّحَرَ, (S,) or because it is for بِالسَّحَرِ; (TA;) and it is thus determinate by itself, (S, K,) without its being prefixed to another noun and without ال: (S:) and in the same sense you say بِسَحَرَ: (TA:) and you say, سِرْ عَلَى فَرَسِكَ سَحَرَ يَا فَتَى [Go thou on thy horse a little before daybreak this night, O youth: so in the TA; but in two copies of the S, for سِرْ I find سِيرَ]: you do not make it to terminate with damm, [like قَبْلُ and بَعْدُ &c.,] because it is an adv. n. which, in a place where it is fitting to be such, may not be used otherwise than as such: (S:) and [in like manner] you say, ↓ لَقِيتُهُ سُحْرَةَ يَا هٰذَا [I met him in the earlier سَحَر of this last night, O thou man]. (TA.) If you make سَحَر the proper name of a man, it is perfectly decl.: and so is the dim.; for it is not of the measure of a noun made to deviate from its original from, like أُخَرُ: you say, ↓ سِرْ عَلَى فَرَسِكَ سُحَيْرًا [Go thou on thy horse a very little before daybreak: so in the TA; but here again, in two copies of the S, for سِرْ I find سِيرَ]: you do not make it to terminate with damm, [like قَبْلُ &c.,] because its being made of the dim. form does not bring it into the class of adv. ns. which may also be used as nouns absolutely, though it does bring it into the class of nouns which are perfectly declinable. (S, TA.) ― -b2- سَحَرٌ also signifies (tropical:) Whiteness overspreading blackness; (K;) like صَحَرٌ; except that the former is mostly used in relation to the time so called, of daybreak; and the latter, in relation to colours, as when one says حِمَارٌ أَصْحَرُ; (TA;) and ↓ سُحْرَةٌ signifies the same; (TA;) i. q. صُحْرَةٌ. (K.) ― -b3- And (tropical:) The extremity (T, A, K) of a desert, (T,) and of the earth or a land, (A,) or of anything: (K:) from the time of night so called: (A:) pl. أَسْحَارٌ. (T, A, K.)
An Arabic-English Lexicon. London. Williams and Norgate. 1863.

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