أَشْرَفُ
1.
2.
مَنْكِبٌ أَشْرَفُ
A high shoulder; (S, O, K;) such as has a goodly rising; which implies what is termed إِهْدَاء [verbal noun of أَهْدَأَهُ, and here apparently meaning the “ being curved in the back ”]. (TA.) And أُذُنٌ شَرْفَاءُ
A long ear; (S, O, K;) standing up; rising above what is next to it: and so اذن
شُرَافِيَّةٌ. (TA.)
3.
See also شُرَافِىٌّ [أَشْرَفُ also signifies Having a prominent, or an apparent, ear: opposed to أَسَكُّ, q. v.
4.
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,
[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 according 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.)وَطَايءِرٌ لَيْسَ لَهُ وَكْرُوَطَايءِرٌ أَشْرَفُ ذُو جُرْدَةٍ
5.
مَدِينَةٌ شَرْفَاءُ
A city having
شُرَف, (Mgh, O, K, *) plural of شُرْفَةٌ [q. v.]: (O:) the plural of أَشْرَفُ and of شَرْفَاءُ, according to rule, is شُرْفٌ. (Mgh. [In the copies of the K, الشُّرُفُ is erroneously said to be plural of الشَّرْفَاءُ.]) It is said in a tradition of Ibn- ' Abbás, أُمِرْنَا أَنْ نَبْنِىَ المَدَايءِنَ شُرْفًا وَالمَسَاجِدَ جُمًّا i. e. We have been commanded to build cities with
شُرَف
and mosques without
شُرَف. (Mgh, O. *)