ليت

لَيْتَ ذ a word denoting a wish [signifying Would that —; I wish that —;] (S, K;) generally relating to a thing that is impossible; rarely to a thing that is possible: (IHsh, K:) governing the subject in the acc. case, and the predicate in the nom. case, (S, K,) like كَأَنَّ (or [rather] اـِنَّ, MF) and its coordinates, because it resembles verbs in their force as words, [being composed of at least three letters, and the last being meftoohah,] and in their admitting most of the pronouns as affixes, and in their meanings. (S.) Ex. لَيْتَ زَيْدًا ذَاهِبٌ [ Would that Zeyd were going; ] (S;) and لَيْتَنِى فَعَلْتُ كَذَا وَكَذَا [ Would that I had done so and so. ] (TA.) You say لَيْتِى as well as لَيْتَنِى, (S, K,) like لَعَلِّى and لَعَلَّنِى, and اـِنِّى and اـِنَّنِى: (S:) but ليتنى is more common than ليتى; whereas لعلّنى is less common than لعلّى. (TA.) You also say يَا لَيْتَ O, would that —;.] As to the saying of the poet, يَا لَيْتَ أَيَّامَ الصِّبَا رَوَاجِعَا meaning لَنَا رَوَاجِعَ, [ O, would that the days of youth were returning ( to us )!] رواجع is put in the acc. case therein as a word descriptive of state: (S:) or it is governed in the acc. case by a verb understood, as أَقْبَلَتْ, or عَادَتْ, or some other verb suitable to the meaning: so says Sb: (TA:) or ليت in the above verse may be used in the manner of وَجَدْتُ, [see below], (S,) for ليت is sometimes used in the manner of وَجَدْتُ [I found], (Fr, S, K,) in government, not in meaning, (MF,) as related by the grammarians on the authority of certain of the Arabs, so that it is doubly transitive, and used in the manner of verbs: (S:) you say, لَيْتَ زَيْدًا شَاخِصًا [ Would that Zeyd were going away, &c. ]: (S, K:) this is done to give intensiveness: one says, for this purpose, لَيْتَ زَيْدًا قَائِمًا ( Would that Zeyd were standing ) putting both the subject and the predicate in the acc. case. (Msb.) ― -b2- لَيْتَمَا: see De Sacy's Gr. Ar. ii. 63. ― -b3- See also an ex. of ليت as a subst. voce سَوْفَ.