شَرِيفٌ
1.
High, elevated, exalted, or eminent, (S, O, * Msb, K, TA,) [in rank, condition, or estimation,] in respect of religion or of worldly things: (TA:) [generally meaning high-born, or noble:] possessing glory, honour, dignity, or nobility: or such, and having also [such] ancestry: (TA:) [using it as not implying highness, or nobility, of ancestry,] you say, هُوَ شَرِيفٌ اليَوْمَ [He is high, or noble, to-day], and عَنْ قَلِيلٍ
شَارِفٌ as meaning one who will be
شَرِيف [after a little while]: (Fr, S, K:) the plural [of pauc.] is أَشْرَافٌ and [of mult.] شُرَفَاءُ (S, O, Msb, K) and
شَرَفٌ, so in the K, apparently denoting that this last is one of the pls. of شريف, and it is said in the O that شَرَفٌ is synonym with شُرَفَاءُ; but in the L it is said that it is synonym with شَرِيفٌ; and hence the saying هُوَ شَرَفُ قَوْمِهِ meaning He is the
شَرِيف
of his people, and كَرَمُهُمْ meaning the
كَرِيم
of them; and thus it has been explained as used in a tradition: (TA:) [but both these assertions are probably correct; for it seems to be, agreeably with analogy, a verbal noun used as an epithet, and therefore applicable to a single person and to a plural number, and also to two persons, and likewise to a female as well as to a male.]
2.
[By the modern Arabs, and the Turks and Persians, it is also applied, as a title of honour, to Any descendant of the Prophet; like سَيِّد. And, with the article ال, particularly to the descendant of the Prophet who is The governor of Mekkeh; now always a vassal of the Turkish Sultán.]