سعد

سَعْدَانٌ ذ , in which the ن is an augmentative letter, because there is not in the language any word of the measure فَعْلَالٌ except خَزْعَالٌ and قَهْقَارٌ unless it is of the reduplicative class, (S,) A certain plant, (S, K,) growing in the plain, or soft, tracts, (TA,) one of the best kinds of the pastures of camels, (S, K,) as long as it continues fresh; (TA;) having [ a head of ] prickles, (T, S, K,) called حَسَكَةُ السَّعْدَانِ, (T, S,) to which the nipple [or the areola ] of a woman's breast is likened: (S, K: [see سَعْدَانَةٌ, below:]) the Arabs say that the camels that yield the sweetest milk are those that eat this plant: (TA:) and they fatten upon it: (Az, TA:) it is of the kind of plants called أَحْرَار [pl. of حُرٌّ, meaning slender, and succulent or soft or sweet ], dust-coloured, and sweet, and eaten by everything that is not large, [ as well as by camels, ] and it is one of the most wholesome kinds of pasture: (AHn, TA:) it is a herb, or leguminous plant, having a round fruit with a prickly face, which, when it dries, falls upon the ground on its back, and when a person walking treads upon it, the prickles wound his foot: it is one of the best of their pastures in the days of the رِبيع, and sweetens the milk of the camels that feed upon it; for it is sweet as long as it continues fresh; and in this state men such it and eat it: (Az, L:) the n. un. is with ة. (TA.) Hence the prov., مَرْعًى وَلَا كَالسَّعْدَانِ [ Pasture, but not like the سعدان]: (S, K:) said of a thing possessing excellence, but surpassed in excellence by another thing; or of a thing that excels other things of the like kind. (TA.) ― -b2- Also The prickles of the palm-tree. (AHn, TA.)