Edward William Lane, An Arabic-English Lexicon, ث

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ثَدْىٌ ثدى ثدي (T, S, M, Mgh, Msb, K, &c.) and ثِدْىٌ and ثَدًى: (K:) the first of these is the form most commonly obtaining: (TA:) [The breast, or mamma;] the part of the chest whereof the حَلَمَة is the head; each of the two parts whereof the حَلَمَتَانِ are the two heads: (Zj in his “ Khalk el-Insán: ”) [and sometimes, but not properly, the حَلَمَة alone; i. e., the pap, nipple, or mamilla:] you say ثَدْى مُقْعَدٌ a breast that is swelling, prominent, or protuberant, (S, A, L, K, in art. قعد,) that fills the hand, (A in that art.,) and has not yet become folding: (S, L, K, in that art.:) and رَضَعَ ثَدْىَ أُمِّهِ [he sucked the breast, meaning the pap, or nipple, of his mother]. (IKtt in TA, art. رضع:) it is peculiar to woman; (T, K;) or common to woman and man; (S, Msb, K;) being sometimes used in relation to a man; (Msb;) accord. to the opinion held to be most chaste and best known by the lexicologists [in general]: (TA:) and is masc.; (T, M, Mgh;) or masc. and fem.; (S, Msb, K;) but most chastely masc.: (TA;) the pl. [of pauc.] is أَثْدٍ, (S, M, Msb, K,] [originally أَثْدُىٌ,] of the measure أَفْعُلٌ, (Msb,) and [of mult.] ثُدِىٌّ, (S, M, Msb, K,) [originally ثُدُوىٌ,] of the measure فُعُولٌ, (S, Msb,) and ثِدِىٌّ, with kesr to the ث because of the kesr to the letter following, (S,) and sometimes ثِدَآءٌ, [originally ثِدَاىٌ,] like سِهَامٌ; (Msb;) and a poet says, “ وَأَصْبَحَتِ النِّسَآءُ مُسَلِّبَاتٍ
لَهُنَّ الوَيْلُ يَمْدُدْنَ الثُّدِينَا
” [And the women became widowed, or bereft of relations, and without their ornaments, or in mourning, having woe, pulling the breasts]; but this is something like a mistake; and it may be that he meant التُّدِيَّا, and changed the [latter] ى into ن for the sake of the rhyme. (M.) It is said in a prov., تُجَوَّعُ الحُرَّةُ وَلَا تَأْكُلُ ثَدْيَيْهَا, meaning, أُجْرَةَ ثَدْيَيْهَا, [i. e. The ingenuous woman will be made to hunger and will not eat the hire of her breasts,] the prefixed noun being suppressed; or, as some relate it, بِثَدْيَيْهَا, which is plain [as meaning, by means of her breasts]: it is applied in relation to a man's preserving himself from ignoble means of acquiring wealth. (Mgh.) And جُدَّ ثَدْىُ أُمِّهِ, May his mother's breast be cut off, is a form of imprecation against a man, and used to imply a wish for his separation. (As, L in art. جد.) The saying of 'Alee, on the day of his slaughter of the Khawárij, اُنْظُرُوا فَإِِنَّ فِيِهمْ رَجُلًا إِِحْدَى يَدَيْهِ مِثْلُ ثَدْىِ المَرْأَةِ [Look ye, for among them is a man one of whose arms is like the breast of the woman], not احدى ثَدْيَيْهِ as some relate it, was applied to a man who had, in the place of one arm, a lump of flesh upon his shoulder-joint, which lump, when it was stretched, became equal in length to his other arm, and when it was left, returned [to its original form]. (Mgh.) Respecting ↓ ثُدَيَّةٌ , the dim., whence the surname ذَو الثُّدَيَّةِ, he who holds ثَدْىٌ to be masc. [only] says that the ة is added because the word [virtually] means اليَد, [which is fem.,] for the man thus surnamed had a short arm, of the size of the ثَدْى, as is indicated by the fact that they also called him ذُو اليُدَيَّةِ: (S:) or, accord. to Fr, (A'Obeyd, T,) ة is added, in this instance, in the dim., though ثَدْىٌ is masc., because it applies to what resembled the remains (بَقِيَّة) of a ثَدْى, the greater part of it having gone, so that it is like لُحَمْيَةٌ and شُحَيْمَةٌ [dims. of لَحْمَةٌ and شَحْمَةٌ]: (T, M:) or the ة is added because the word is regarded in this case as meaning البَضْعَةُ [the piece, or lump, of flesh]: (Mgh:) some say that it is the dim. of ثَنْدُوَةٌ; (Mgh, TA;) but this requires consideration. (Mgh.)