Edward William Lane, An Arabic-English Lexicon, ث

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اِثْنَانِ اثنان ٱثنان a noun of number; (S, Msb;) applied to the dual number; (Msb;) meaning [Two;] the double of وَاحِدٌ; (M, K;) with a conjunctive ا [when not immediately preceded by a quiescence, written ا@ثْنَانِ]; (T, S, Msb;) but this is sometimes made disjunctive when connected with a preceding word by poetic license: (T, S:) of the masc. gender: (S:) fem. اِثْنَتَانِ, (T, S, Msb,) in which, also, the ا is conjunctive; (T, Msb;) and ↓ ثِنْتَانِ ; (T S, M, Msb, K;) the latter sometimes used, (T,) [much less frequently than the former, though the only fem. form mentioned in the M and K,] and of the dial. of Temeem; (Msb;) like as one says, هِىَ ا@بْنَةُ فُلَانٍ and هِىَ بِنْتُهُ: (T:) the ت in the dual is a substitute for the final radical, ى, (M, TA,) as it is in أَسْنَتُوا, the only other instance of this substitution except in words of the measure اِفْتَعَلَ: (Sb, M, TA:) in اِثْنَانِ, the final radical, ى is suppressed: (Msb:) it has no sing.: (Lth, T:) if it were allowable to assign to it a sing., it would be اِثْنٌ [for the masc.] and اِثْنَةٌ [for the fem.], like اِبْنٌ and اِبْنَةٌ: (S:) accord. to some, (Msb,) it is originally ثِنْىٌ; (T, Msb, CK;) and hence the dual ثِنْتَانِ: (Msb:) or it is originally ثَنَىٌ, (M, Msb, and so in a copy of the K,) the conjunctive ا being then substituted for the ى whence the dual ا@ثْنَانِ, like ا@بْنَانِ: (Msb:) this is shown by the form of its pl., which is أَثْنَآءٌ, (M, K,) like أَبْنَآءٌ [pl. of ا@بْنٌ, which is originally بَنَىٌ or بَنَوٌ,] and آخَآءٌ [pl. of أَخٌ, which is originally أَخَوٌ]. (M.) In the saying in the Kur [xvi. 53], لَا تَتَّخِذُوا إِِٰلهَيْنِ ا@ثْنَيْنِ [Take not to yourselves two gods], the last word is added as a corroborative. (M.) The phrase ثِنْتَا حَنْظَلٍ occurs, by poetic license, for اِثْنَتَانِ مِنْ حَنْظَلٍ, meaning حَنْظَلَتَانِ [Two colo- cynths]. (S.) You say also, القَدَحِ ↓ شَرِبْتُ أَثْنَآءَ , and شَرِبْتُ ا@ثْنَىْ هٰذَا القَدَحِ, meaning [I drank] twice as much as the bowl, and as this bowl: and in like manner, شَرِبْتُ ا@ثْنَىْ مُدِّ البَصْرَةِ and ا@ثْنَيْنِ بِمُدِّ البَصْرَةِ [I drank twice the quantity of the مُدّ of El-Basrah]. (M.) And a poet says, “ ↓ فَمَا حُلِبَتْ إِِلَّا الثَّلَاثَةَ وَالثُّنَى
وَلَا قُيِّلَتْ إِِلَّا قَرِيبًا مَقَالُهَا
” meaning [And she was not milked save] three vessels and two, [nor was she given her middaydrink save when her midday-resting was near.] (IAar, M.) ― -b2- Hence, (Msb,) يَوْمُ الا@ِثْنَيْنِ, (S, Msb,) or الا@ِثْنَانِ alone, (M, K,) One of the days of the week; [the second; namely, Monday;] because the first, with the Arabs, is الأَحَدُ; (M;) as also ↓ الثِّنَى , like إِِلَى; (K;) so in the copies of the K; [or,] accord. to some, ↓ الثُّنِىُّ , [originally الثُّنُوىُ,] of the measure فُعُول, like ثُدِىٌّ [pl. of ثَدْىٌ], is used in this sense; (TA;) or ↓ اليَوْمُ الثُّنَىُّ , [so in the M, accord. to the TT,] mentioned by Sb, on the authority of certain of the Arabs: (M:) the pl. is أَثْنَآءٌ and أَثَانِينُ, (M, K,) the latter mentioned on the authority of Th: but it has no dual: and those who say أَثْنَآءٌ form this pl. from الا@ِثْنُ, although this has not been in use: (M:) or it has neither dual nor pl., (S, Msb,) being itself a dual; (S;) but if you would form a pl. from it, you would regard it as itself a sing., and make its pl. أَثَانِينُ: (S, Msb:) IB says that أَثَانِينُ has not been heard [from the Arabs], and is only mentioned by Fr, on the ground of analogy; that it is far-fetched in respect of analogy; and that the pl. heard is أَثْنَآءٌ: Seer and others mention, as heard from the Arabs, إِِنَّهُ لَيَصُومُ الأَثْنَآءَ [Verily he fasts on the Mondays]. (TA.) الثنين in يوم الثنين has no dim. (Sb, S in art. امس.) IJ says that the article ال in الثنين is not redundant, though the word is not an epithet: Abu-l-'Abbás says that the prefixing of the article in this case is allowable because the virtual meaning is اليَوْمُ الثَّانِى [the second day]. (M.) The saying اليَوْمُ الا@ِثْنَانِ means The name of to-day [is الاثنان]; and is like the saying اليَوْمُ يَوْمَانِ [to-day is two days] and اليَوْمُ خَمْسَةَ عَشَرَ مِنَ الشَّهْرِ [to-day is fifteen of the month]. (Sb, M.) Sometimes, يَوْمُ ا@ثْنَيْنِ, without the article ال, occurs in poetry. (M, K.) When a pronoun refers to الاثنان [as meaning Monday], this word may be treated in two ways, [as a sing. and as a dual,] but the more chaste way is to treat it as a sing., as meaning the day: (Msb:) [thus,] Aboo-Ziyád used to say, مَضَى الا@ِثْنَانِ بِمَا فِيهِ [Monday passed with what occurred in it]; making it sing. and masc.; and thus he did in the case of every day of the week, except that he made الجُمْعَة fem.: Abu-I-Jarráh used to say, مَضَى الا@ِثْنَانِ بِمَا فِيهِمَا, treating the word as a numeral; and thus he treated the third and fourth and fifth days, saying in each of these cases بِمَا فِيهِنَّ. (M.) ― -b3- [اِثْنَا عَشَرَ, fem. اِثْنَتَا عَشْرَةَ; respectively, in a case of nasb and khafd, اِثْنَىْ عَشَرَ and اِثْنَتَىْ عَشْرَةَ; and with ا@ when not immediately preceded by a quiescence; mean Twelve: see عَشَرَةٌ.]