وَبَأٌ

and ↓ وَبَاءٌ, (S, K,) and also without وَبُاَ , [وَبًا,] (TA,) Plague, or pestilence; synonym طَاعُونٌ: (K:) or a common, or general, [or an epidemic,] disease: (S:) or any such disease: (K:) or a quickness, and commonness, of death among men. (TA.) Accord. to Ibn-En-Nefees, it is a corruption happening to the substance of the air, by reason of causes in the heavens or the earth; as stinking water, and carcases, such as are the result of bloody battles. Accord. to the hakeem Dá-ood, it is a change effected in the air by events in the higher regions, as the conjunction of beaming stars; and by events in the lower regions, as bloody battles, and the opening of graves, and the ascending of putrid exhalations; with which causes conspire the changes of the seasons and elements, and the revolutions of the universe. They mention also its signs; among which are fever, small-pox, defluxions, itch or scab, tumours, &c. What is said in the Nuzheh necessarily implies that the طاعون is one of the different kinds of وبا; as the physicians hold to be the case: but the opinion which the critics among the professors of practical law and the relaters of traditions hold is, that these two diseases are distinct, the one from the other; the وبا being an unwholesomeness in the air, in consequence of which diseases become common among men; and the طاعون being that kind [of disease] with which men are smitten by the jinn, or genii: an opinion which they corroborate by the words in a tradition إِنَّهُ وَحْزُ أَعْدَايءِكُمْ مِنَ الجِنِّ [Verily it is the unpenetrating thrusting of your enemies among the jinn]. (TA.) The plural of وَبَأٌ is أَوْبَاءُ; and of ↓ أَوْبِيَةٌ, وَبَاءٌ (S, K, TA) or أَوْبِيءَةٌ. (CK.)