لَيْتَ
1.
a word denoting a wish [signifying Would that —; I wish that —;] (S, K;) generally relating to a thing that is impossible; rarely to a thing that is possible: (IHsh, K:) governing the subject in the acc. case, and the predicate in the nom. case, (S, K,) like كَأَنَّ (or [rather] إِنَّ, MF) and its coordinates, because it resembles verbs in their force as words, [being composed of at least three letters, and the last being meftoohah,] and in their admitting most of the pronouns as affixes, and in their meanings. (S.) Ex. لَيْتَ زَيْدًا ذَاهِبٌ [Would that Zeyd were going;] (S;) and لَيْتَنِى فَعَلْتُ كَذَا وَكَذَا [Would that I had done so and so.] (TA.) You say لَيْتِى as well as لَيْتَنِى, (S, K,) like لَعَلِّى and لَعَلَّنِى, and إِنِّى and إِنَّنِى: (S:) but ليتنى is more common than ليتى; whereas لعلّنى is less common than لعلّى. (TA.) You also say يَا لَيْتَ
O, would that —;.] As to the saying of the poet,
meaning لَنَا رَوَاجِعَ, [O, would that the days of youth were returning (to us)!] رواجع is put in the acc. case therein as a word descriptive of state: (S:) or it is governed in the acc. case by a verb understood, as أَقْبَلَتْ, or عَادَتْ, or some other verb suitable to the meaning: so says Sb: (TA:) or ليت in the above verse may be used in the manner of وَجَدْتُ, [see below], (S,) for ليت is sometimes used in the manner of وَجَدْتُ [I found], (Fr, S, K,) in government, not in meaning, (MF,) as related by the grammarians on the authority of certain of the Arabs, so that it is doubly transitive, and used in the manner of verbs: (S:) you say, لَيْتَ زَيْدًا شَاخِصًا [Would that Zeyd were going away, &c.]: (S, K:) this is done to give intensiveness: one says, for this purpose, لَيْتَ زَيْدًا قَايءِمًا (Would that Zeyd were standing) putting both the subject and the predicate in the acc. case. (Msb.)يَا لَيْتَ أَيَّامَ الصِّبَا رَوَاجِعَا
2.
لَيْتَمَا: see De Sacy's Gr. Ar. ii. 63.
3.
See also an example of ليت as a subst. voce سَوْفَ.