نَهَارٌ

Day; or day-time; opposite of لَيْلٌ: (S, TA:) or broad daylight, (Mgh,) from sunrise to sunset: (Mgh, Msb, K:) this is the original signification: (TA;) or this is the signification in the vulgar conventional language: but in the classical language it signifies the time from the rising of the dawn to sunset: (Msb:) or the light between the rising of the dawn and sunset: (K:) and so according to the lawyers: (TA:) in the trads., it is the whiteness of the نهار, and the blackness of the ليل; and there is nothing intervening between the ليل and the نهار: but sometimes the Arabs amplified, and applied نهار to the time from the clear shining of the dawn to the setting [of the sun]: (Msb.) or (so according to the TA. but in some copies of the K, and the spreading of the light [which is a cause] of sight and its dispersion: (K:) in this explanation in the L, in the place of وَافْتِرَاقُهُ we find وَاجْتِمَاعُهُ [and its collecting together]: (TA:) it is also synonym with يَوْمٌ; and is so when used without restriction in the non-fundamental sciences of religion, (الفُرُوع,) as in the phrases صُمْ نَهَارًا [fast thou a day] and إِعْمَلْ نَهَارًا [work thou a day]: and it may be so used, or in its proper classical sense, when prefixed to يَوْم, governing the latter in the gen. case: (Msb:) it has no proper dual, (Mgh, Msb,) and no proper plural, (S, Mgh, Msb, K, (like عَذَابٌ and سَرَابٌ; (S, K;) the former of which, however, has a plural assigned to it [by Zj and] in the K, namely, أَعْذِبَةٌ; (MF;) [and respecting the latter see شَرَابٌ, with ش;] [for] نهار is a name applied to every يَوْم [or day]; and لَيْلٌ, to every لَيْلَة [or night]: one does not say نَهَارٌ وَنَهَارَانِ, nor لَيْلٌ وَلَيْلَانِ: but the singular of نهار is يَوْمٌ (TA.) and the dual, يَوْمَانِ, (Msb, TA:) and the plural, أَيَّامٌ. (Msb:) and the opposite of يوْمٌ is لَيْلَةٌ, so says Az, on the authority of AHeyth (TA:) or it has pls.: namely, أَنْهُرٌ, (IAar, S, K,) a plural of pauc., (S,) in some lexicons أَنْهِرَةٌ, (TA,) also a plural of pauc.,] and نُهُرٌ, (S, Mgh, Msb, K,) a plural of mult. (S) [See also نَهَرٌ.] Ibn-Keysán cites the following example,

لَوْلَا الثَّرِيدَان لَمُتْنَا بِالضُّمُرْ

ثَرِيدُ لَيْلٍ وَثرِيدٌ بِالنَّهُرْ

[Were it not for the two thereeds (or messes of crumbled bread moistened with broth), we had died of leanness: the thereed of night, and thereed in the day-times]. (S.)