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سَفِينَةٌ ذ A ship, or boat; (M, L;) of the measure فَعيلَةٌ in the sense of the measure فَاعِلَةٌ; (IDrd, S, M, L, Msb;) as though it pared the surface of the water; (IDrd, S, L, Msb;) or so called because it pares [meaning skims] the surface of the water; (M, L;) or because it pares the sands [by running aground] when the water is little [in depth]; or because [in that case] it sticks upon the ground; or it may be from سَفَنٌ meaning “ a carpenter's adz or axe with which he hews &c., ” and, if so, having the meaning of the measure مَفْعُولَةٌ: (L:) the pl. is سَفَائِنُ and سُفُنٌ (M, L, Msb, K) and [coll. gen. n.] ↓ سَفِينٌ : (S, M, L, Msb, K:) the first of these is a regular pl.: (Sb, M, L:) the second is pl. of the third, (Msb,) or it is as though it were pl. of the third: (Sb, M, L:) ↓ the third is anomalous, being of a class proper to created things, as in the instances of تَمْرَةٌ and تَمْرٌ, and نَخْلَةٌ and نَخْلٌ, and only heard in a few instances in the cases of things made by art; and some say that it is a dial. var. of سَفِينَةٌ. (Msb.) [Hence,] السَّفِينَةُ (assumed tropical:) [The constellation Argo;] one of the southern constellations, of which the stars are five and forty, the bright great star upon the southern oar being سْهَيْلٌ [i. e. Canopus], accord. to Ptolemy, and it is the most remote star from the سفينة, in the south, and is marked on the astrolabe; but some of the Arabs say that the bright star at the extremity of the second oar [but what star is meant thereby I know not] is called سُهَيْلٌ, without restriction. (Kzw.) ― -b2- [Also An oblong book: and a commonplace book: app. post-classical.]
An Arabic-English Lexicon. London. Williams and Norgate. 1863.

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