يراع

• يَرَع (yaraʕ)

Probably from Aramaic, the same word as or derivative of יַעְרָא / ܝܰܥܪܳܐ (yaʿrā, “rushes, bushes, thicket”), so doublet of وَعْر (waʕr). The sense of a coward may be instead from the root ر و ع (r-w-ʕ).

• IPA^(key): /ja.raːʕ/

يَرَاع • (yarāʕ) m (collective, singulative يَرَاعَة f (yarāʕa))

1. piece of reed, reed-pipe or reed-pen
2. glowworm, larviform gnat
   • a. 625, الأعشى , quoting المسيب بن علس, edited by Geyer, Rudolf, Zwei Gedichte von Al-ʾAʿšâ (Sitzungsberichte der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien. Philosophisch-historische Klasse; 149/6)‎, volume Mâ Bukâʾu, Wien: In Kommission bei Carl Gerold’s Sohn, published 1905, pages 62–63:

     وَمَهًا يَرِفُّ كَأَنَّهُ إِذْ ذُقْتَهُ … عَانِيَّةٌ شُجَّتْ بِمَاءِ يَرَاعِ

     wamahan yariffu kaʔannahu ʔiḏ ḏuqtahu … ʕāniyyatun šujjat bi-māʔi yarāʕi

     An essence, which when tried, tastes like wine of ʿānah diluted with sump water

3. quakebuttock, coward

• Freytag, Georg (1837) “يراع”, in Lexicon arabico-latinum praesertim ex Djeuharii Firuzabadiique et aliorum Arabum operibus adhibitis Golii quoque et aliorum libris confectum‎ (in Latin), volume 4, Halle: C. A. Schwetschke, page 518a
• Kazimirski, Albin de Biberstein (1860) “يراع”, in Dictionnaire arabe-français contenant toutes les racines de la langue arabe, leurs dérivés, tant dans l’idiome vulgaire que dans l’idiome littéral, ainsi que les dialectes d’Alger et de Maroc‎ (in French), volume 2, Paris: Maisonneuve et C^ie, page 1626b