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الصَّرْفَةُ ذ One of the Mansions of the Moon; [the Twelfth Mansion;] a single very bright star, [ β of Leo,] (S, O, K, and Kzw in his Descr. of the Mansions of the Moon,) by which are some small evanescent stars; (Kzw;) over against, (بِتِلْقَآء, so in my copies of the S,) or following, (O, K and Kzw ubi suprà,) الزُّبْرَة; (S, O, K, Kzw;) [i. e.] it is a single star behind the خَرَاتَانِ of the Lion; (M;) it is on the hinder part of the tail (ذَنَب) of the Lion; [wherefore it is called by our astronomers Deneb;] and is also called the قُنْب, which means the sheath of the penis, of the Lion: (Kzw in his Descr. of Leo: [in the S and O, erroneously, “ the قَلْب of the Lion: ”]) [it rose aurorally, in Central Arabia, about the commencement of the era of the Flight, on the 8th of Sept., O. S.; and set aurorally on the 9th of March:] Ibn-Kunáseh says, (M,) it is called الصَّرْفَةُ because of the turning away of the cold (S, M, O, K) from the heat, (M,) and the coming of the heat, (S, O,) accord. to the [O and] K at its rising, but [as] IB says, correctly because of the turning away of the heat [at its rising], and the coming of the cold: (TA:) [i. e., correctly,] it is thus called because of the turning away of the cold at its setting in the early mornings, and the turning away of the heat at its rising from beneath the rays of the sun in the early mornings: (Kzw in his Descr. of Leo:) when it rises before the dawn, that is the beginning of autumn; and when it sets with the rising of the dawn, that is the beginning of spring. (M.) [Hence,] الصَّرْفَةُ is [called] نَابُ الدَّهْرِ الَّذِى يُفْتَرُّ, (Ibn-'Abbád, O, K,) or نَابُ الدَّهْرِ الَّذِى يَفْتَرُّ عَنْهُ [The dog-tooth of time, or fortune, which it shows smiling]: for when الصرفة rises, [a mistake for “ sets, aurorally, ”] the blossoms come forth and the herbage attains its full height: (M and K in art. فر:) in the T it is said that الصَّرْفَة is called by the Arabs نَابُ الدَّهْرِ [the dog-tooth of time, or fortune,] لِأَنَّهُ يَفْتَرُّ عَنِ البَرْدِ وَعَنِ الحَرِّ فِى الحَالَتَيْنِ [i. e. because it smiles revealing (the advent of) the cold and (that of) the heat, in its two states (of auroral rising and setting)]. (TA.) -A2- صَرْفَةٌ also signifies A certain kind of bead (خَرَزَةٌ); (Lh, S, M, O, K;) mentioned among those by means of which men are captivated, or fascinated, or restrained by women from other women; (S, O, K; *) or by means of which men are conciliated, so as to be turned thereby from their ways of acting or conduct or the like. (Lh, M.) -A3- And A bow having upon it a black mark or spot (شَامَةٌ سَوْدَآءُ), the arrows of which, when they are shot, will not hit the object of aim. (O, K.) -A4- And one says, حَلَبْتُ النَّاقَةَ صَرْفَةً, meaning I milked the she-camel in the early morning, between dawn and sunrise, and then left her until the like time of the morrow. (O, K. *)
An Arabic-English Lexicon. London. Williams and Norgate. 1863.
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