حِمًى

A thing prohibited, or interdicted; (S, K;) as also حِمَاءٌ and حِمْيَةٌ; (K;) and not to be approached: (S:) [and, as an epithet in which the quality of a subst. is predominant,] a place of herbage, or pasture, (Lth, Mgh, Msb, * TA, and Ham p. 539,) and of water, (Ham ibid.,) prohibited to the people, [i. e. to the public,] (Lth, Mgh, and Ham ubi suprà,) so that they may not pasture their beasts in it, (Lth, Mgh,) nor approach it, (Mgh, Msb,) nor venture upon it: (Msb:) it was a custom of the noble among the Arabs, in the Time of Ignorance, when he alighted in a district [that pleased him], among his kinsfolk, to incite a dog to bark, and to prohibit for his own special friends or dependents the space throughout which the bark of the dog was heard, so that none else should pasture his beasts there; while he shared with the people in the other places of pasture, around it: but the Prophet forbade this: (Esh-Sháfi'ee, TA:) he said, “ There shall be no حمى except for God and for his Apostle; ” (Esh-Sháfi'ee, S, Mgh, TA;) meaning, except for the horses employed in war against the unbelievers and for the camels taken for the poor-rate: (Esh-Sháfi'ee, Mgh, TA:) afterwards, the term was applied in a general sense: (Esh-Sháfi'ee, TA:) the plural is أَحْمَاءٌ (S and K in article حجر) and أَحْمِيَةٌ: (Ham p. 496:) and the dual is حِمَيَانِ and حِمَوَانِ; (ISk, S, Msb, TA;) the latter irreg., (TA,) heard by Ks, but be preferred the former. (S.) You say, هٰذَا شَىْءٌ حِمًى This is a thing prohibited, or interdicted; not to be approached. (S.) And كَلَأٌ حِمًى Herbage, or pasture, that is prohibited, or interdicted. (K.)