العَرَبُ

, (S, A, Mgh, O, Msb, K, &c.,) as also العُرْبُ, (S, O, Msb, K,) A certain people, or nation; [the Arabs, or Arabians;] (S, O;) the opposite of العَجَمُ (A, Msb, K, TA) and العُجْمُ; (TA;) the inhabitants of the cities, or large towns, (S, A, O, K,) or of the Arabian cities and towns or villages: (Mgh:) [but now, on the contrary, generally applied to those who dwell in the desert:] or those who have alighted and made their abode in the cultivated regions, and have taken as their homes the Arabian cities and towns or villages, and others also that are related to them: (Az, Msb:) or [according to general usage] an appellation of common application [to the whole nation]: (T, K:) [and in the lexicons and lexicological works applied to the desert Arabs of pure speech:] it is of the feminine gender: (Msb, K:) and العَرَبُ has two pls., namely, العُرُبُ, with two dammehs, and الأَعْرُبُ [which is a plural of pauc.]: (Msb:) the rel. n. [which serves as a singular] is عَرَبِىٌّ: (S, O, K: [عَرَبٌ عَرَبِىٌّ in the CK is a mistake:]) according to Az, (TA,) this appellation is applied to a man of established Arab lineage, even if he be not chaste, or correct, in speech. (Msb, TA.) The diminutive of العَرَبُ is العُرَيْبُ, (S, O,) without ة, (O, TA,) an extr. word [with respect to analogy, as the undiminished noun is feminine]: (TA:) a poet (Abu-l-Hindee, whose name was 'Abd-El-Mu-min, son of 'AbdEl-Kuddoos, O, TA) says,

وَمَكْنُ الضِّبَابِ طَعَامُ العُرَيْبِ

وَلَا تَشْتَهِيهِ نُفُوسُ العَجَمْ

[And the eggs of dabbs are food of the little Arabs; but the souls of the Foreigners do not desire them]: in which he uses the diminutive form to imply respect, or honour, like as it is used in the saying أَنَا جُذَيْلُهَا المُحَكَّكُ وَعُذَيْقُهَا المُرَجَّبُ [explained in article جذل]. (S, O.)

العَرَبُ العَارِبَةُ (in which the latter word is used as a corroborative of the former as in لَيْلٌ لَايءِلٌ, S, O) and العَرَبُ العَرْبَاءُ (S, A, O, Msb, K) and العَرَبُ العَرَبِيَّةُ (O) and العَرَبُ العَرِبَةُ (K) and العَرَبُ العَرِبَاتُ (CK [but this I do not find in any other copy of the K]) are appellations of The pure, or genuine Arabs: (S, A, O, K:) or those who spoke the language of Yaarub Ibn-Kahtán; which is the ancient language: (Msb:) and العَرَبُ المُسْتَعْرِبَةُ, (S, O, Msb, K,) as also العَرَبُ المُتَعَرِّبَةُ, (S, O, K,) is an appellation of The insititious [or naturalized Arabs]; (K;) those who are not pure, or genuine, Arabs: (S, O:) or those who spoke the language of Ismá'eel [or Ishmael] the son of Ibráheem [or Abraham], i. e., the dialects of El-Hijáz and the parts adjacent thereto: (Msb:) and the appellation of مُسْتَعْرِبَةٌ is thought by Az to apply [also] to people not of pure Arabian descent, who have introduced themselves among the Arabs, and speak their language, and imitate their manner or appearance. (TA.) [The former division is most reasonably considered as consisting of the extinct tribes ('Ád, Thamood, and others mentioned in what follows); or of these together with the unmixed descendants of Kahtán, whose claims to the appellation of genuine Arabs are held by many to be equally valid: and the latter division, as consisting of those whose origin is referred, through Ma'add and 'Adnán, to Ismá'eel (or Ishmael), whose wife was descended from Kahtán. What I find in the TA, on this subject, is as follows.] The former of these two divisions consisted of nine tribes, descendants of Irem [or Aram] the son of Sám [or Shem] the son of Nooh [or Noah]; namely, 'Ád, Thamood, Umeiyim, 'Abeel, Tasm, Jedees, 'Imleek [or Amalek], Jurhum, and Webári; and from them Ismá'eel [or Ishmael is said to have] learned the Arabic language: and the مُتَعَرِّبَة are [said to be] the descendants of Ismá'eel, the descendants of Ma'add the son of 'Adnán the son of Udd: so says Abu-l-Khattáb Ibn-Dihyeh, surnamed Dhun-Nesebeyn: or the former division consisted of seven tribes, namely, 'Ád, Thamood, 'Imleek, Tasm, Jedees, Umeiyim, and Jásim; the main portion of whom has become extinct, some remains of them, only, being scattered among the [existing] tribes: so says IDrd: and the appellation of العَرَبُ العَارِبَةُ is also given to the descendants of Yaarub the son of Kahtán [only]. (TA.) [It should be observed, however, that the appellation of المُتَعَرِّبَةُ is, by those who hold the extinct tribes above mentioned as the only genuine Arabs, applied to the unmixed descendants of Kahtán; and المُسْتَعْرِبَةُ, to those who are held to be the descendants of Ismá'eel: thus in the Mz, 1st نوع. Also, it should be observed that the appellation of العَرَبُ العَارِبِةُ, in the conventional language of Arabic lexicology, is often applied to the Arabs of the classical ages, and the later Arabs of the desert who retained the pure language of their ancestors, indiscriminately: it is thus applied by writers quoted in the Mz (1st نوع) to all the descendants of Kahtán, and those of Ma'add the son of 'Adnán (through whom all the descendants of Ismá'eel trace their ancestry) who lived before the corruption, among them, of the Arabic language.]

الأَعْرَابُ is the appellation given to Those [Arabs] who dwell in the desert; (S, Mgh, O, Msb, K;) such as go about in search of herbage and water; and Az adds, whether of the Arabs or of their freedmen: he says that it is applied to those who alight and abide in the desert, and are neighbours of the dwellers in the desert, and journey, or migrate, with them, to seek after herbage and water: (Msb:) it is not a plural of العَرَبُ, not being like الأَنْبَاطُ, which is plural of النَّبَطُ; (S, O;) but is a [coll.] gen. n.: (S:) الأَعَارِيبُ occurs as its plural (S, O, K) in chaste poetry: (S:) it has no singular [properly so termed]: (K:) the rel. n. is أَعْرَابِىٌّ, (S, O,) which is applied to single person; (Msb;) as also بَدَوِىٌّ: (TA:) Az says, if one say to an أَعْرَابِىّ, يَا عَرَبِىُّ, he is pleased; and if one say to an عَرَبِىّ, يَا أَعْرَابِىُّ, he is angry. (TA.)

Authors differ as to the cause why the عَرَب were thus called: some say, because of the perspicuity of their speech, from إِعْرَابٌ: others, that they were so called from Yaarub the son of Kahtán, who is said to have been the first that spoke the Arabic language; his original language having been, as asserted by IDrd, [what the Arabs term] Syriac; though some say that Ismá'eel was the first that spoke the Arabic language; and some, that Yaarub was the first that spoke Arabic, and that Ismá'eel was the first that spoke the pure Arabic of El-Hijáz, in which the Qur'an was revealed: others say that the عَرَب were so called from العَرَبَةُ, the name of a tract near El-Medeeneh, or a name of Mekkeh and the adjacent region, where Ismá'eel settled, or the same as Tihámeh [as is said in the Mgh, in which this is pronounced to be the most correct derivation], or the general name of the peninsula of Arabia, which is also called العَرَبَاتُ [as is said in the Msb]: but some say that they were so called in like manner as were the فُرْس and the رُوم and the تُرْك and others, not after the name of a land or other than a land, but by the coining of the name, not a term expressive of a quality or a state or condition &c. (TA.) [If the country were called العَرَبَةُ, an inhabitant thereof might be called, agreeably with analogy, عَرَبِىٌّ; and then, the people collectively, العَرَبُ: but I think that the most probable derivation is from the old Hebrew word עְרֶב, meaning “ a mixed people, ” which the Arabs assert themselves to have been, almost from the first; and in favour of this derivation it may be reasonably urged that the old Himyeritic language agrees more in its vocabulary with the Hebrew and Phœnician than it does with the classical and modern Arabic.]