Edward William Lane, An Arabic-English Lexicon, ث

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ثَمَنٌ ثمن ثمنن The price of a thing; i. e. the thing that the seller receives in return for the thing sold, whether money or a commodity; (Er-Rághib, TA;) the ثَمَن of a thing sold: (S:) and also (Er-Rághib, TA) a compensation, or substitute, (Mgh, Msb, Er-Rághib, TA,) whatever it be, for a thing, (Er-Rághib, TA,) i. e., for a thing that is sold; but in the sense commonly known, such as it is incumbent upon one to pay, of pieces of silver, and of gold [or other money]; not commodities and the like: (Mgh:) or the value, or worth, of a thing; (K;) its قِيمَة: (T:) or the estimated value, or worth, of a thing, by mutual consent, even though it be really excessive or deficient; whereas the قِيمَة is its real value or worth, its equivalent: (MF:) pl. أَثْمَانٌ (T, Mgh, Msb, K) and أَثْمُنٌ, (S, Msb, K,) the latter used only as a pl. of pauc., (Msb,) and [so] أَثْمِنَةٌ. (CK: not in the TA.) The saying in the Kur [ii. 38 and v. 48], وَلَا تَشْتَرُوا بِآيَاتِى ثَمَنًا قَلِيلًا is metaphorical, meaning (tropical:) And take ye not in exchange for my signs a small substitute: [i. e. purchase not in exchange for belief in my word the happiness, or enjoyments, of the present life.] (Mgh.) With respect to this saying, Fr remarks, when ثَمَنًا occurs in the Kur, with بِ prefixed to the name of the thing sold or bought, in most cases it relates to two things whereof neither is a ثمن in the sense commonly known, i. e., such as pieces of gold and of silver: and such is the case when you say, اِشْتَرَيْتُ ثَوْبًا بِكِسَآءٍ [I purchased a garment with a كساء, q. v.]: either of these may be termed a ثمن for the other: but in speaking of pieces of silver and of gold, you prefix the ب to the ثمن [only]; as is done in [the chapter of] Yoosuf, [i. e. ch. xii., v. 20, where it is said,] وَشَرَوْهُ بِثَمَنٍ بَخْسٍ دَرَاهِمَ مَعْدُودَةٍ [And they sold him for a deficient, or an insufficient, price: for pieces of silver not many, so as to require their being weighed, but few, and therefore counted]: for pieces of silver are always a ثمن: and when you purchase pieces of silver and of gold with the like, you prefix the ب to whichever of the two you will, because each of them in this case is a purchase and a price. (T.)