أَدْرَعُ
1.
, applied to a horse, and to a sheep or goat, Having a black head, the rest being white: (S, Msb, * K:) or, as some say, having a black head and neck, (Msb, TA,) the rest being white: (TA:) or having a white head and neck, the rest being black: (TA:) feminine دَرْعَاءُ: (S, Msb:) plural دُرْعٌ: (S:) or دَرْعَاءُ signifies having what is termed
دَرَعٌ [q. v.]; applied to a sheep or goat, (K,) and to a mare: (TA:) or a sheep or goat black in the body, and white in the head: or black in the neck and head, the rest of her being white: or, according to AZ, a ewe having a black neck: or, according to Aboo-Sa'eed, sheep or goats differing in colour: or, according to ISh, black except in having the neck white: and red [or brown], but having the neck white: and also, having the head with the neck white: according to Az, the right explanation is that given by AZ, meaning having the fore part black; being likened to the nights termed دُرَعٌ; or the latter are likened to the former: and hence, (TA,)
2.
لَيْلَةٌ دَرْعَاءُ (tropical:) A night of which the moon rises at the dawn, (K,) or at the commencement of the dawn; the rest thereof being black, and dark. (TA.) And
لَيَالٍ دُرَعٌ, (S, K,) said by AHát to have been heard by him only on the authority of AO, but so according to As and A 'Obeyd and AHeyth, (TA,) and دُرْعٌ; (K;) the former contr. to rule, for by rule it should be دُرْعٌ, its singular being دَرْعَاءُ; (A 'Obeyd, S;) or, according to AHeyth, you say ثَلَاثٌ دُرَعٌ وَثَلَاثٌ ظُلَمٌ, and دُرَعٌ and ظُلَمٌ are pls. of
دُرْعَةٌ and ظُلْمَةٌ, not of دَرْعَاءُ and ظَلْمَاءُ; and Az says that this is correct and regular; but IB says that دَرْعَاءُ has دُرَعٌ for its plural for the purpose of assimilation to ظُلَمٌ in the saying ثَلَاثٌ ظُلَمٌ
وَثَلَاثٌ دُرَعٌ, and that no other instance had been heard by him of a word of the measure فَعْلَاءُ having a plural of the measure فُعَلٌ; (TA;) (tropical:) Three nights of the month which follow those called
البِيضُ; (As, S, K; *) namely, the sixteenth and seventeenth and eighteenth nights; (TA;) because of the blackness of their first parts, and the whiteness of the rest thereof: (S, K:) there is no difference in what As and AZ and ISh say respecting them: but some say that they are the thirteenth and fourteenth and fifteenth; because part of them is black and part of them white: [this, however, seems to have originated from a misunderstanding of an explanation running thus; three nights of the month which follow those called
البِيض, which, meaning the latter, are the thirteenth &c.; for the thirteenth and fourteenth and fifteenth are all white:] or, according to AO, اللَّيَالِى الدُّرَعُ signifies the nights of which the fore parts are black and the latter parts white, of the end of the month; and those of which the fore parts are white and the latter parts black, of the commencement of the month. (TA.)