سَفَرٌ

Journey, or travel; the act of journeying or travelling; (S, A, K;) opposite of حَضَرٌ: (M, K:) thus called because of the going and coming in it, like the going and coming of the wind sweeping away fallen leaves: (M:) or the act of going forth to journey; a verbal noun used as a simple subst.: (Msb:) [therefore] the plural is أسْفَارٌ: (S, M, A, Msb, K:) [and therefore it is often used as a n. un.; but, properly speaking, the n. un. is ↓ سَفْرَةٌ:] you say, كَانَتْ سَفْرَتُهُ قَرِيبَةً [His journey was near]: and the plural of سَفْرَةٌ, according to rule, is سَفَرَاتٌ. (Msb.) In law, [as relating to the obligation of fasting &c.,] The going forth with the intention of performing a journey of three days and nights, or more. (KT.)

-A2- Also The whiteness of dawn or daybreak: (A:) or the whiteness of the day: (S, M:) and i. q. صَبَاحٌ [dawn, or morning, or forenoon; but apparently here used in the first of these senses]: (M:) and ↓ سَفِيرٌ, the whiteness [of the sky] before night: (A, TA:) or the former, the remains of the whiteness of day after sunset. (K.) You say سَفَرًا i. e. صَبَاحًا [apparently as meaning In the dawn]. (A.) And the prose-rhymer says, إِذَا طَلَعَتِ الشِّعْرَى سَفَرًا لَمْ تَرَفِيهَا مَطَرًا (S, * TA) i. e. When Sirius rises in the whiteness of day [meaning in the clear twilight of morning, thou seest not then rain: for Sirius rises aurorally, in Arabia, in the middle and the latter half of July, when rain scarcely ever falls there]. (S. [Accord. to the TA, the meaning, apparently taken without consideration from one of the foregoing explanations of سَفَرٌ, is, when Sirius rises at nightfall: but this is during the usual winter-rains.]) You say also, لَقِيتُهُ سَفَرًا, and فِى سَفَرٍ, meaning ↓ عِنْدَاسْفِرَارِ الشَّمْسِ لِلغُرُوبِ, thus related, with س [in the word اسفرار (not with ص), and apparently meaning I met him when the sun was becoming white, previously to the setting]. (M.) And بَقِىَ سَفَرٌ مِنْ نَهَارٍ [There remained a white gleam of daylight]. (A.)