شرف

أَشْرَفُ ذ [ More, and most, high, elevated, exalted, or eminent, in rank, condition, or estimation; &c.; generally meaning more, and most, high-born or noble; (see شَرِيفٌ;)] surpassing in شَرَف. (S, O.) ― -b2- مَنْكِبٌ أَشْرَفُ A high shoulder; (S, O, K;) such as has a goodly rising; which implies what is termed اـِهْدَاآء [inf. n. of أَهْدَأَهُ, and here app. meaning the “ being curved in the back ”]. (TA.) And أُذُنٌ شَرْفَاآءُ A long ear; (S, O, K;) standing up; rising above what is next to it: and so اذن ↓ شُرَافِيَّةٌ. (TA.) ― -b3- See also شُرَافِىٌّ [أَشْرَفُ also signifies Having a prominent, or an apparent, ear: opposed to أَسَكُّ, q. v. ― -b4- Hence,] الأَشْرَفُ is an appellation of The bat; (O, K, TA;) because its ears are prominent and apparent: it is bare of downy and other feathers, and is viviparous, not oviparous: so in the saying of Bishr Ibn-ElMoatemir, وَطَائِرٌ لَيْسَ لَهُ وَكْرُ وَطَائِرٌ أَشْرَفُ ذُو جُرْدَةٍ [ And a flying thing that has prominent and apparent ears and a denuded body, and a flying thing that has no nest ]: (O, TA:) in the K is added, and another bird, that has no nest, &c.: but this is taken from an explanation of the latter hemistich of the verse cited above; which explanation is as follows: (TA:) the bird that has no nest is one of which the Bahránees [so in the TA, but accord. to the O “ the sailors, ”] tell that it does not alight save while it makes, of the dust, or earth, a place in which it lays its eggs, and which it covers over; then it flies into the air, and its eggs break open of themselves at the expiration of the term thereof; and when its young ones are able to fly, they do after the habit of their parents. (O, L, TA: and the same is said, less fully, in the K.) ― -b5- مَدِينَةٌ شَرْفَاآءُ A city having شُرَف, (Mgh, O, K, *) pl. of شُرْفَةٌ [q. v.]: (O:) the pl. of أَشْرَفُ and of شَرْفَاآءُ, accord. to rule, is شُرْفٌ. (Mgh. [In the copies of the K, الشُّرُفُ is erroneously said to be pl. of الشَّرْفَاآءُ.]) It is said in a trad. of Ibn- ' Abbás, أُمِرْنَا أَنْ نَبْنِىَ المَدَائِنَ شُرْفًا وَالمَسَاجِدَ جُمًّا i. e. We have been commanded to build cities with شُرَف and mosques without شُرَف. (Mgh, O. *)