أًسْفَعُ

Of a black colour tinged, or intermixed, with redness: (S, Msb:) or black: (Mgh:) applied to a man: (S:) fem سَفْعَاءُ: (Mgh, Msb:) and سُفْعٌ [is the plural, and] signifies blacks inclining to redness. (K.) Applied to an ostrich, i. q. أَرْبَدُ [which is variously explained, as signifying Of a colour inclining to blackness, or of the colour of dust, &c.]. (TA.) And the feminine, applied to a ewe, Having black cheeks, the rest of her being white. (TA.) The masculine also signifies A wild bull: (K:) or, applied to a wild bull, it signifies having in his cheeks a blackness inclining a little to redness. (TA.) And The hawk; (K;) because it has spots of black: (Er-Rághib:) all hawks are سُفْعٌ: (S:) and the feminine, A pigeon (حَمَامَةٌ); because of the سُفْعَة upon its neck: (S:) or, applied to a pigeon, it signifies of which the سُفْعَة is upon its neck, (K, TA,) exclusively of the head, (TA,) in the part on each side of the neck above the ring. (K, * TA.) It is also a name for Sheep, or goats; used when they are called to be milked: (K:) so in the O: but in some copies, and in the TS, for the she-goat: (TA:) thus in the phrase, أَشْلِ إِلَيْكَ الأَسْفَعَ [Call thou to thee the sheep, or goats, or the she-goat, to be milked]: (O, TS, K:) mentioned by Ibn-'Abbád. (TA.)

Applied to a garment, or piece of cloth, Black. (K.)

↓ The plural is also applied to The أَثَافِىّ, (Lth, S, K,) or three stones upon which the cooking-pot is set up; (TA;) because of their blackness: (Lth, Er-Rághib:) [see حَاضِنٌ:] and a single one thereof is called سَفْعَاءُ: (K:) or an iron أُثْفِيَّة [meaning trivet], (K, TA,) upon which the cooking-pot is set up; and this is said to be the primary application. (TA.)

سُفْعٌ also signifies The seeds, or grain, of the colocynth; (Ibn-'Abbád, K;) because of their blackness: (TA:) n. un. with ة. (K.)