شَوًى

is plural of شَوَاةٌ: [or rather the former is a coll. gen. n. of which the latter is the n. un.:] the latter signifies The skin of the head: (S, TA:) so [according to some] in the Qur'an, 70:16: (TA:) or the exterior of the skin of the head, in which grows the hair: (Aboo-Safwán, TA in article بشر:) and some say, the exterior of all, or of any part, of the skin: (TA in the present article:) and the former signifies the arms or hands and the legs or feet, or the fore and hind legs, (S, K,) and (K) the extremities (Msb, K) collectively, (K,) and the head of a human being, (S,) or the قِحْف of the head [i. e. the bone above the brain, or a separate portion of the skull, or a distinct bone of the skull], (K,) but of a horse the legs, not the head, because one says عَبْلُ الشَّوَى [i. e. thick in the legs], for this cannot relate to the head of the horse, (S,) and any part that is not a [vital] place [i. e.] where a wound causes death (S, Msb, K) such [for instance] as the legs. (Msb.) ثَالِبَةُ الشَّوَى means A woman having cracked, or chapped, feet. (S and K in article ثلب.)

It is also a subst. [apparently meaning a quasi-verbal noun] from أَشْوَاهُ [q. v.] as said of a shooter or caster: (TA:) [and hence] the saying (S, TA) of the Hudhalee, (S, [according to the TA, Khálid Ibn-Zuheyr,])

فَإِنَّ مِنَ القَوْلِ الَّتِى لَا شَوَى لَهَا

إِذَا زَلَّ ظَهْرِ اللِّسَانِ انْفِلَاتُهُ

means (assumed tropical:) [And, or for] verily of speech is that sentence (كَلِمَة, a word understood,) which does not hit a place where a wound will not occasion death, [i. e. which does not miss its object, when its escaping from the upper surface of the tongue is quick,] but which kills. (S, TA.) And شَوًى is used [apparently in like manner, as a quasi-verbal noun,] in the case of anything that has missed an object of aim, though there be to it [really] no place where a wound would occasion death nor anything that is [properly] termed شَوًى [as meaning a place where a wound will not occasion death]. (TA.) And [hence] it signifies (assumed tropical:) A mistake; synonym خَطَأٌ. (TA.)

Also (tropical:) A thing, (S,) or an affair, (K,) that is paltry, mean, despicable, or of no account or weight or worth: (S, K, * TA:) in this sense, from the same word as signifying the “ extremities ” [of an animal]. (IAth, TA.) Hence, in a tradition of Mujáhid, كُلُّ مَا أَصَابَ الصَّايءِمَ شَوًى إِلَّا الغَيْبَةَ (tropical:) [Everything that befalls the faster is a matter of no account, except absence of mind]; i. e. nothing that befalls the faster annuls his fast except الغيبة, for this does annul it. (TA.)

And (assumed tropical:) The worse, or viler, sort of cattle, (S, K, TA,) of camels, and of sheep or goats; and the small, or young, thereof. (TA.) [See also شُوَايَةٌ.]

And (assumed tropical:) A remainder, or remaining portion. (TA.) [See, again, شُوَايَةٌ.]

Also i. q. إِبْقَاءٌ (assumed tropical:) [The making, or causing, or suffering, to remain; or, perhaps, to continue in life, and if it mean thus, it may be from the same word in a sense explained above, for the animal that one hits in a part that is not vital is suffered to continue in life]. (TA.)