مَسَاءَةٌ

a verbal noun of سَاءَهُ: (S, M, K:) and [also a subst. signifying An evil, as being] a cause of grief or vexation; opposite of مَسَرَّةٌ: originally مَسْوَأَةٌ: and therefore the plural is ↓ مَسَاوٍ, for مَسَاوِيءُ; (Msb;) signifying also vices, faults, defects, or imperfections; (S, Msb, K, TA;) and diseases; (S, TA;) and acts of disobedience: (Msb:) so in the saying, بَدَتْ مَسَاوِيهِ His acts of disobedience, and vices, faults, &c., appeared: (Msb:) and الخَيْلُ تَجْرِى عَلَى مَسَاوِيهَا Horses run, notwithstanding their vices, or faults, &c., (S, Meyd, K,) and diseases; (S, Meyd;) for their generousness impels them to do so: (S, Meyd, K: but omitted in the CK:) and in like manner, the ingenuous generous man bears difficulties, and defends, or protects, what he is bound to defend or protect, or to regard as sacred, or inviolable, though he be weak, and practises generosity in all circumstances: (Meyd, TA:) or it is applied in relation to the protection and defence of what should be sacred, or inviolable, or of wives, or women under covert, and the members of one's household, notwithstanding harm, or injury, and fear: or it means that one may seek to defend himself by means of a man though there be in him qualities disapproved: (MF, TA:) but according to Lh, المَسَاوِى has no proper singular, like المَحَاسِنُ: (Meyd, TA: *) according to some of the writers on inflection, it is the opposite of المَحَاسِنُ, and an anomalous plural of السُّوْءُ, being originally with ء. (TA.)