شُعُوب

$aEuwbu * , (S, A, Msb, K,) without the article Al , and imperfectly decl., (Msb,) and Al$~aEuwbu , (A, Msb, K,) with the article, and perfectly decl., (Msb,) but several authors disallow this latter, accounting it wrong; (TA;) a name for Death; (S, A, * Msb, K; *) so called because it separates men: (S, Msb:) the former is a proper name: (Msb:) J says [in the S] that it is determinate, and does not admit the article Al : in the L, it is said that $aEuwbu and Al$~aEuwbu both signify as above; and that in either case it may be originally an epithet, being like the epithets qatuwl and Daruwb ; and if so, the article in this case is as in AlEab~aAsu and AlHasanu and AlH`rivu : and this opinion is confirmed by what is said of its derivation: but he who says $aEuwb , without the article, makes the word a pure substantive, and deprives it literally of the character of an epithet; wherefore the article is not necessarily attached to it, as it is not to Eab~aAs and H`riv ; yet the essence of an epithet is in it still, as in the instance of jaAbiru bonu Hab~apa , a name for “ bread, ” so called because it reinvigorates the hungry; and as in waAsiT , [a certain town] so called, accord. to Sb, because midway between El-'Irák [' Irák el-'Ajam] and El-Basrah: thus in the L. (TA.) One says of a person when he has been at the point of death and then escaped, A^aqaS~atohu $aEuwbu [ Death became near to him ]. (TA.) And it is said in a trad., famaA zilotu waADiEFA rijoliY EalaY xad~ihi Hat~aY A^azarotuhu $aEuwba , i. e. [ And I ceased not putting my foot upon his cheek until ] I made death to visit him. (TA.)