خنفس
خُنْفَسٌ and its variations: see what here follows.
خُنْفَسَآءُ (
S,
Msb,
K) [in two copies of the
S, in which it is without the article, written without tenween, but in the
Msb and
K it has the article prefixed, and is therefore necessarily without tenween,] and خُنْفُسَآء, (
Msb,
TA,) which is more common, (
Msb,) [but this I doubt, for I have found it nowhere else,] and ↓ خُنْفَسٌ (
S,
K) and خُنْفُسٌ (
TA) and خِنْفِسٌ, (
K,) which last is of the
dial. of the people of El-Basrah, (
TA,) and خُنْفُسَةٌ and خُنْفُسَةٌ, (
K,) [The black beetle: or a certain species thereof:] a well-known creeping thing; (
Msb;) a certain insect, (
S,
K,) black, (
K,) of fetid odour, smaller than the جُعَل, found in the bottoms of walls: (
TA:) the first and second of these words are both applied to the male and the female: (
Msb:) or خُنْفَسٌ is applied to the male, (
AA,
Msb,) by some of the Arabs, (
Msb,) and is
syn. with عُنْظَبٌ and حُنْظَبٌ, (
AA,
TA,) and خُنْفُسٌ is not disallowable, being agree-able with
analogy: (
Msb:) and خُنْفَسَاءَةٌ is applied to the female, [which, if correct, shows خنفسآء to be with tenween,] and so is خُنْفَسَةٌ: (
S:) or خنفساءة, with ة, is not allowable; [and if so, خنفسآء is without tenween;] (
As,
TA;) and خنفسة is [not applied to the female, but] used by the Benoo-Asad for خنفسآء, as though they made the ة a substitute for the ا: (
Msb:) [and this seems to indicate that the ا is a
fem. ا, grammatically speaking, and that the word is therefore without tenween:] the
pl. is خَنَافِسُ. (
Msb.) One says, هُوَ أَلَحُّ مِنَ الخُنْفَسَآءِ [He is more persevering than the black beetle]: because it returns to thee as often as thou throwest it away. (
TA.) [
Accord. to the
K, the ن in the words of this art. is radical; but
accord. to the
S and
Msb, augmentative.]
