قريحة

• IPA^(key): /qa.riː.ħa/

قَرِيحَة • (qarīḥa) f (plural قَرَائِح (qarāʔiḥ)) (countable)

1. temperament

   Synonym: طَبْع (ṭabʕ, “stamp; nature”)

   قَرِيحَة شِعْرِيَّة

   qarīḥa(t) šiʕriyya

   a poetic temperament

   • (Can we date this quote?), al-Ḥarīrī, المَقَامَة المَلْطِيَّة [al-maqāma(t) al-malṭiyya, The Maltese Episode]:

     وبيْنا نحنُ ننْشُرُ القَشيبَ والرّثَّ. وننْشُلُ السّمينَ والغَثَّ. وغَلَ عليْنا شيخٌ قد ذهَبَ حِبرُهُ وسِبْرُهُ. وبقِيَ خُبْرُهُ وسَبْرُهُ. فمثُلَ مُثولَ منْ يسمَعُ وينظُرُ. ويلتَقِطُ ما ننْثُرُ. إلى أن نُفِضَتِ الأكياسُ. وحصْحَصَ الياسُ. فلمّا رأى إجْبالَ القَرائِحِ. وإكْداءَ الماتِحِ والمائِحِ. جمَعَ أذيالَهُ. وولاّنا قَذالَهُ. وقال: ما كُلّ سوْداءَ تمْرَةٌ. ولا كلّ صهْباءَ خمرَةٌ. فاعْتَلَقْنا بهِ اعتِلاقَ الحِرْباء بالأعْوادِ. وضربْنا دونَ وِجْهَتِهِ بالأسْدادِ. وقلْنا لهُ: إن دَواء الشّقّ أن يُحاصَ. وإلا فالقِصاصَ القِصاصَ. فلا تطمَعْ في أن تجْرَحَ وتطْرَحَ. وتُنهِرَ الفَتْقَ وتسْرَحَ!

     But even as we laid out the raggéd and the fresh, and plucked the fleshy and the chaff, there irrupted on us an elderly man, whose mien and features were gone, and whose percipience and probing lingered on, standing about like one eyeing and listening, picking up what we drop, till we were shaking out our bags, with registered despair. Seeing the straining of temperaments and the balking of the one reaching out or scooping up, he trailed his tail, and turned on us his poll, "Not everything black is a date, nor everything rufous wine," so we clung to him like a chameleon on twigs and sticks, and flung in his way blocks and bricks. "The cure of a rent is mending," we said, "If not, then vengeance, vengeance! Do not look to wound then be let off, or slip away after you gash and scoff!"