ذؤابة

Unknown. Probably a distorted word, potential relations being ذَنَب (ḏanab) or Yemeni Arabic زَبَان (zabān, “fundament; loins”) and the words mentioned there, and possibly just from a figurative use of ذَابَ (ḏāba, “to melt, to flow away”) hamzated in a fashion as سُؤْدُد (suʔdud) and ظِئْر (ẓiʔr), note ذُوبَان (ḏūbān) and ذِيبَان (ḏībān, “hair on the neck of a camel, horse, etc.”).

• IPA^(key): /ðu.ʔaː.ba/

ذُؤَابَة • (ḏuʔāba) f (plural ذُؤَابَات (ḏuʔābāt) or ذَوَائِب (ḏawāʔib))

1. lock, tress, wisp, curl (of hair)
   • a. 1283, Abū Yahyā Zakariyāʾ ibn Muhammad al-Qazwīnīy, edited by Ferdinand Wüstenfeld, آثار البلاد وأخبار العباد ‎, Göttingen: Verlag der Dieterichschen Buchhandlung, published 1848, pages 238 7–6 a fine:

     فَأَمَرَ بِفَرَسَيْنِ جَمُوحَيْنِ وَشُدَّتْ ذَوَائِبُهَا فِي ذَنَبَيْهِمَا ثُمَّ ٱسْتُحْضِرَا فَقَطَعَهَا

     faʔamara bifarasayni jamūḥayni wašuddat ḏawāʔibuhā fī ḏanabayhimā ṯumma stuḥḍirā faqaṭaʕahā

     He called for two restive horses and their curls were fastened to their tails then they were brought along and he cut them.

2. coma of a comet
3. lappet, pendent fabric of a headdress
   • 1924, أمين الريحاني [ʔAmīn ar-Rīḥānī], “السيد الإدريسي – (٦) أديان وأشجان”, in ملوك العرب‎, Windsor, United Kingdom: مؤسسة هنداوي [Hindawi Foundation], published 2021, →ISBN, page 185:

     وَجَدْتُهُ صَبَاحَ ٱلْعِيدِ جَالِسًا عَلَى ٱلْعَرْشِ مُعْتَمَّا بِعِمَامَةٍ هِنْدِيَّةٍ وَافِرَةٍ، طَوِيلَةِ ٱلذُّؤَابَةِ، بَاهِرَةِ ٱلْأَلْوَانِ، وَبِيَدِهِ سِفْرٌ إِنْكْلِيزِيٌّ فِي ٱلْفُطْرِيَّاتِ كَانَ يُتَرْجِمُهُ إِلَى ٱللُّغَةِ ٱلْهِنْدِسْتَانِيَّةِ.

     wajadtuhu ṣabāḥa l-ʕīdi jālisan ʕalā l-ʕarši muʕtammā biʕimāmatin hindiyyatin wāfiratin, ṭawīlati ḏ-ḏuʔābati, bāhirati l-ʔalwāni, wabiyadihi sifrun ʔinglīziyyun fī l-fuṭriyyāti kāna yutarjimuhu ʔilā l-luḡati l-hindistāniyyati.

     On the feast in the morning I found him sitting on a throne in an opulent Indian turban, long in lappets, brilliant in colours, and in his hand an English book about the natural sciences he translated into Hindustani.

4. (figurative) top tier, high point