بيض

A poet says, using a phrase from which this use of the verb probably arose:

That is: the نعام, meaning the نَعَائِم [or Twentieth Mansion of the Moon], sent down rain on it, and so put its occupants to flight, except the one who stayed and risked dying of a wasting disease.

[The last word is in the genitive by poetic licence, because the word before it is in that case; like خَرِبٍ in the phrase هٰذَا جُحْرُ ضَبٍّ خَرِبٍ.]

The poet is describing a valley rained on and so producing herbage; for the rain of the asterism called النعائم falls in the hot season, [when that asterism sets aurorally — see مَنَازِلُ القَمَرِ in art. نزل,] and then there grows, at the roots of the حَلِىّ, a plant called نَشْر which is poisonous and kills beasts that eat of it. The verse is explained in this way by El-Mohellebee.

Or, as IAar says, the poet means rain that falls at the نَوْء [by which we are here to understand the setting aurorally] of النعائم; and when this rain falls, the wise man flees and the stupid one stays.

[Like a bird staying in the place where she lays her eggs.]

Or: the earth produced the plants it contained. Or: it changed from green to yellow, scattered its fruit or produce, and dried up.

[He wrote out a fair copy after making a first rough draught: in this sense also the opposite of سَوَّدَ; probably post-classical.]

He filled a vessel; or he filled a vessel, or a skin, with water and milk.

And he emptied a vessel: so the verb carries two opposite meanings.

Synonymous with جَاهَرَنِى, from بَيَاضُ النَّهَارِ [the whiteness of day, or daylight].

See also form 9, in two places.

A helmet of iron, made of plates like the bones of the skull, the edges of which are joined together with nails; and sometimes of one piece. So called because it resembles an ostrich's egg in shape.

In this sense also the ism waḥda of بَيْضٌ. [In the CK, for والحَدِيدُ we should read والحَدِيدِ.]

This may be what is meant in a tradition in which it is said that a man's hand is to be cut off for stealing a بَيْضَة.

A testicle; plural بِيضَانٌ.

The bulb of the saffron-plant and the like, as resembling an egg in shape.

[A tuber: for the same reason.]

A kind of grape of Et-Táïf, white and large.

The core of a boil, as resembling an egg.

The fat of a camel's hump, for the same reason.

بَيْضَةُ البَلَدِ, besides the meanings given above, also means the white truffle; or simply truffles, synonym الكَمْأَةُ; or these are called بَيْضُ الأَرْضِ.

Like the egg comprising the young bird; or it means the congregation, or collective body, of the Muslims.

Also the heart, or midst, or main part of their abode; their principal place of abode; the place that comprises them; the place of their government, or regal dominion; and the seat of their دعوة [i.e. دِعْوَة, kindred and brotherhood]; the midst of them; or, as some say, their kinsfolk such as are termed عَشِيرَة. But when you say أَتَاهُمُ العَدُوُّ فِى بَيْضَتِهِمْ, the meaning is that the enemy came to them in their principal place of abode, the place where they were gathered.

Same as حَوْزَتُهُ; so in art. حوز.

So called because she is kept concealed within it. [In the CK, جَارِيَتُهَا is put erroneously for جَارِيَتُهُ.]

بَيْضَةٌ is used metonymically for a woman, likening her to an egg in colour and in her being protected as if beneath the wing. [See Qur 37:47.]

Opposed to سَوْدَةٌ.

With kesr; so according to IAar, with kesr to the ب.

As though herbage blackened land; or untrodden land; also بَيْضَةٌ.

Same as بَيَاضُهُ, that is, its light.

From the [auroral] rising of الدَّبَرَان to that of سُهَيْل — reckoning for the beginning of the era of the Flight, in central Arabia, from about 26 May to about 4 August, Old Style. Also بَيْضَآءُ القَيْظِ.

بَيَاضُ النَّهَارِ: see form 3; and see بَيْضَةٌ, near the end of the paragraph.

Used with a word left out, for ذُو بَيَاضٍ. [Hence it has other meanings too, given below.]

Milk. For an example see سَوَادٌ.

[The white of an egg.]

Like سَوَادٌ; synonymous with شَخْصٌ.

A seller of eggs.

بَيَّاضَةٌ: see بَيُوضٌ.

Applied to a man and the like, it was sometimes used to mean white in complexion; but in this sense they generally used the adjective أَحْمَرُ.

They also used بِيضَانٌ, a plural of أَبْيَضُ, as the opposite of سُودَانٌ [that is, meaning whites], applied to men; though they applied the name أَبُو البَيْضَآءِ to the Abyssinian, or to the negro, and أَبُو الجَوْنِ to the white man.

But according to Th, أَبْيَضُ applied to a man means only pure, free from faults; or, so applied, unsullied in honour, nobility, or estimation, free from faults, and generous; and so بَيْضَآءُ applied to a woman.

[In the dictionaries, however — see, for example, the explanation of بَضَّةٌ in the S — and in other post-classical works, it is generally used, when thus applied, in its proper sense of white, or fair in complexion.]

Used alone, as a noun.

So called because of its whiteness; plural بِيضٌ.

Silver, because of its whiteness, as gold is called الأَحْمَرُ [because of its redness].

The saliva of the mouth.

A certain star at the edge of the Milky Way.

Because of its whiteness.

Waste, uncultivated, or uninhabited land. [In the CK, الجِرابُ is put erroneously for الخَرَابُ.]

Opposed to السَّوْدَآءُ, because dead lands are white, and when planted become black and green. See also بَيْضَةٌ, near the end.

Wheat; also السَّمْرَآءُ.

Fresh grain of the kind called سُلْت. (El-Khattábee)

A certain kind of wood, that which is called الحَوَرُ, because of its whiteness. [See حَوَرٌ.]

The cooking-pot; also أُمُّ بَيْضَآءَ.

The snare with which one catches game.

A poet says:

[And I have no beverage except milk and water.]

Bread and water; or wheat and water; or fat and milk.

Fat and youthfulness.

Or: for two months.

Or simply البِيضُ, for أَيَّامُ اللَّيَالِى البِيضِ.

That is, the days of the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth nights of the month, so called because the moon lights them throughout; or of the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth nights, but this is of weak authority and irregular, and the first is the correct explanation.

You should not say الأَيَّامُ البِيضُ (Ibn-El-Jawáleekee), yet that is the reading in most relations of a tradition in which it occurs, and some argue for it; and the author of the K has himself explained الأَوَاضِحُ by الأَيَّامُ البِيضُ.

So in art. شهب.

And a favour, or benefit, for which one is not reproached, and which is given without being asked. [See also يَدٌ.]

Such as is not preceded by disease that alters the complexion; or, as some say, death without the repentance, the prayer for forgiveness, and the settling of necessary duties usual with one who is not taken unawares. From بَيَّضَ, meaning “he emptied” a vessel; so says Sgh. Opposed to المَوْتُ الأَحْمَرُ, which is slaughter.

Apparently as a term of good omen, like سَلِيمٌ applied to one who is stung by a scorpion or bitten by a serpent.

بَيْضَآءُ القَيْظِ: see بَيْضَةٌ, last sentence but one.

So called because they made their clothes white, in contrast to the مُسَوِّدَة, the partisans of the dynasty of the 'Abbásees, whose distinguishing colour was black. They lived in Kasr 'Omeyr. [See also الحَرُورِيَّةُ.]