سَوْف

sawofa * , for which one also says safo , (M, Mughnee, K,) rejecting the medial radical letter, (M, Mughnee,) and sawo , (M, Mughnee, K,) rejecting the final radical, (M, Mughnee,) and saYo , (M, Mughnee, K,) rejecting the final radical and changing the medial into Y for the purpose of alleviation [of the utterance], (M, Mughnee,) and accord. to the L saA , (TA,) is a particle, (IJ, M, K,) denoting inception; (K;) or a word denoting tanofiys , (Sb, S, M, K,) i. e. amplification, because it changes the aor. from the strait time, which is the present, to the ample time, which is the future; (Mughnee voce sa [q. v.];) i. e., denoting tnfys with respect to that which has not yet happened; (Sb, S, K;) and postponement; (M;) and is used in terrifying and threatening and promising; (IDrd, K;) or it is a word denoting promising or threatening: (Msb:) it is syn. with sa accord. to some, or has a larger meaning than this latter accord. to others. (Mughnee.) You say, sawofa A^afoEalu [ I will do such a thing]. (Sb, S.) And one may not introduce a separating word between it and its verb, [except in a case mentioned in what follows,] because it occupies the place of the s in sayafoEalu [&c.]. (Sb, S.) [But] it is distinct from sa by its [sometimes] having l prefixed to it; as in [the phrase in the Kur xciii. 5], walasawofa yuEoTiyka rab~uka fataroDaY [ And thy Lord will give thee, and thou wilt be well pleased ]: (Mughnee:) in this phrase, [however,] the l is [considered as] pre- fixed to the verb, not to the particle: (M:) or the phrase is elliptical, for laA^anota sawofa yuEoTiyka . (Bd.) And it is distinct from sa in this, that it is sometimes separated [from its verb] by a verb divested of government both as to the letter and the meaning; as in the saying, wamaA A^adoriY wasawofa A_ixaAlu A^adoriY A^aqawomN A=lu HiSonK A^amo nisaA='u [ And I know not, but I shall, I think, know, whether the family of Hisn be a company of men or women ]. (Mughnee.) ― -b2- When you desire to make it a subst., [i. e. to use it as a subst.,] you make it to have tenween [when it is indeterminate]. (IDrd, K.) IDrd cites as an ex., A_in~a sawofFA waA_in~a layotFA EanaA='N [ Verily sawofa and verily layota are a weariness ]: but one reading is A_in~a law~FA ; and another, A_in~a layotFA wA_in~a law~FA ; and there is no such reading as A_in~a sawofFA . (O, TA.) One says also, fulaAnN yaqotaAtu Als~awofa [lit. Such a one feeds upon the word sawofa ]; meaning (tropical:) Such a one lives by means of things hoped for: (S, K, TA:) and in like manner, maA quwtuhu A_il~aA Als~awofu [lit. His food is not anything but, or other than, the word sawofa ]. (A, TA.) ― -b3- In the following verse of Ibn-Mukbil, cited by Sb, bisawofK mino taHiy~atihaA ↓ lawo saAwafatonaA sawofa AlEayuwfi laraAHa Alr~akobu qado qaniEaA [ Had she put us off with a sawofa as part of her greeting, with the putting off even of such as is affected with dislike, the riders had gone contented ], sawofa is put in the accus. case [for musaAwafapa , i. e.] as an inf. n. with the augmentation [meaning the augmentative letters] rejected. (M.)