رَتَمٌ
1.
[applied in the present day to The shrub broom; to several species thereof: spartium monospermum of Linn.: genista rætam of Forsk.: (Delile, Flor. Aegypt. Illustr., no. 657:) spartium: (Forskål, Flora Aegypt. Arab., p. lvi.:) and phalaris setacea: (Idem, p. lx.:)] a species of plant: (T:) or a species of tree; (Mgh;) or so
رَتَمَةٌ; of which the former is the plural [or rather coll. gen. n.]: (S:) or the latter, (Lth, T,) or the former, (AHn, M, K,) the latter being its n. un., (K,) a certain plant, of the shrub-kind; (AHn, T, M, K;) as though by reason of its slenderness, it were likened to the thread, or string, called رَتَمِ: (AHn, T, * K, * TA: [see this word voce رَتِيمَةٌ: in the CK, in the present instance, erroneously written رَقْم:]) and so
رَتِيمَةٌ: (AHn, T:) its flower is like the
خِيرِىّ [or yellow gilliflower], and its seed is like the lentil: each of these (i. e. the flower and the seed, TA) strongly provokes vomiting: the drinking the expressed juice of its twigs, fasting, is a beneficial remedy for sciatica (عِرْقُ النَّسَا); and likewise the using as a clyster an infusion thereof in sea-water: and the swallowing twenty-one grains thereof, fasting, prevents the [pustules called] دَمَامِيل. (K.) When a man was about to make a journey, he betook himself to two branches, or two trees, and tied one branch to another, and said, “ If my wife be faithful to the compact, this will remain tied as it is; otherwise, she will have broken the compact: ” so says As; and ISk says the like: (T:) or he betook himself to a tree, (S, K,) or to the species of tree called رَتَم, (ISk, Mgh,) and tied together two branches thereof, (ISk, S, Mgh, K,) or he tied together two trees; (M;) and if he returned and found them as he tied them, he said that his wife had not been unfaithful to him; but otherwise, that she had been so: (ISk, S, M, Mgh, K:) this [pair of branches or trees] is called الرَّتَمُ [in the CK, erroneously, الرَّتْمُ] and
الرَّتِيمَةُ: (K:) or this is what is meant by
الرَّتِيمَةُ: (M:) or this [action] is what is meant by تَعْقَادُ الرَّتَمِ in the following verse: (As, ISk, T, Mgh:) but IB says that الرَّتَايءِمُ [plural of
الرَّتِيمَةُ] does not mean peculiarly one kind of trees exclusively of others: and he cites this verse as an example of الرَّتَمُ meaning the threads, or strings, so called; (TA;) as does AZ. (Mgh.) A rájiz says,
[Will the muchness of thine enjoining, and the tying of the retem, be indeed of use to thee to-day, if she be desirous of them?]. (T, S, Mgh.)هَلْ يَنْفَعَنْكَ اليَوْمَ إِنْ هَمَّتْ بِهِمْكَثْرَةُ مَا تُوصِى وَتَعْقَادُ الرَّتَمْ
2.
See also رَتِيمَةٌ, in two places.
3.
4.