ثنيrepeating a thing twice, or making it into two successive or distinct things — doubling, … (root thny)

Al-thinī (الثني) of anything is that which is folded part upon part, in layers, each layer being a thinī — so much so that it has been said 'athnāʾ al-ḥayyah' (أثناء الحية), meaning the coils of a snake when it has curled up. When you mean the folding of a thing part upon part, you say: thanaytuhu thanyan (ثنيته ثنيا) — to the point that a man intending a direction turns it back, his going upon his coming and his departure upon his arrival... It is said: 'Fulān lā yuthnā 'an qirnihi wa lā 'an wajhihi' (فلان لا يثنى عن قرنه ولا عن وجهه) — 'So-and-so is not turned back from his rival nor from his course.' Thanaytu al-shayʾa tathniyatan (ثنيت الشيء تثنية): I made it into two. Thanā rijlahu 'an dābbatihi (ثنى رجله عن دابته): he drew his leg up to his thigh and thereby dismounted from his mount. Thanaytu al-rajula (ثنيت الرجل): 'I am his thānī [second]' — one and you are the two [together], it is not expressed [in the active form with a direct object] except in this way; it is not said 'thanaytu fulānan' meaning 'I became his second,' for fear of ambiguity — rather you say 'ṣirtu lahu thāniyan' (I became a second to him) or 'ma'ahu thāniyan' (a second along with him). Ithnān (اثنان) is a pair of names bound together, never used singly, just as thalāthah (three) are conjoined names not separated. Ithnatān (اثنتان) is [built] as if from ithnah to ithnah, not used singly. The alif in ithnayn (اثنين) is a connecting alif (alif waṣl)... And sometimes they say thintān (ثنتان), just as they say 'hiya ibnatu fulān' and 'hiya bintuhu' [both meaning 'she is his daughter']. Al-tathannī (التثني) is swaying while walking... Al-thaniyyah (الثنية) is the highest mountain-pass at the top of a peak, seen from afar and recognized... Al-thaniyyah (الثنية) is [also] the dearest of children to the mother. Al-Muhalhil said: 'My mother mourned me over the thaniyyah [beloved child], the day she parted from him, just short of the plain.' Al-thinī (الثني) among non-human creatures is one whose two milk front-teeth have fallen and two others have grown in their place, so it is said 'it has become athnā' (أثنى). The gazelle does not advance beyond the ithnāʾ stage, and only the camel becomes sudās [reaches the six-toothed stage]. They came mathnā (مثنى) — indeclinable — and [also] thinā thinā (ثنى ثنى) [both meaning 'two by two']. Al-mathnā (المثنى) is the second string of the lute ('ūd). Al-mathānī (المثاني) are the verses of the Opening of the Book [al-Fātiḥah]. In another hadith: al-mathānī are the sūrahs whose first is al-Baqarah and whose last is Barāʾah [al-Tawbah]. In a third: al-mathānī is the whole Qur'an, because the narratives and reports are repeated (tuthnā) in it. Al-thinī (الثني) is the joining of one to another; al-thinī is also used as a [concrete] noun, as one says 'thinnī hādhā al-thawb' [fold this garment]. Al-thinī (الثني) is [also a term for a camel] after the bikr [first-timer]. He said: '...O their two tribes' watering places, Ka'b and Madhḥij, and with the white [swords], victory — not a thinī nor a bikr...' [entry continues]

Al-thanāyah (الثناية) is a rope of hair or wool. The rajaz-poet said: '...and the rough stone and the thanāyah...' As for al-thanāʾ (الثناء), with a long medial ā (mamdūd), it is the hobbling-rope of the camel and the like, made of a doubled cord. Each single strand of it, if taken apart, would itself be called thanāʾ. You say: ''aqaltu al-ba'īra bi-thanāʾayn' (عقلت البعير بثنائين) — 'I hobbled the camel with two thanāʾ-cords,' meaning I hobbled both its front legs together with one rope, or with the two ends of one rope. It is not given a hamzah [in a certain grammatical treatment] because it is a word that occurs [only] in the dual, its singular never being used so as to say 'thanāʾ' [with hamzah] — so the yāʾ was kept in accordance with its origin, as was done with 'madhrawayn.' For the origin of the hamzah in thanāʾ, were its singular used, would be a yāʾ, since it derives from thanaytu; and if its singular were used one would say 'thanāʾān,' just as one says 'kisāʾān' and 'ridāʾān.' Al-thinā (الثنى) is one of the 'athnāʾ al-shayʾ' (أثناء الشيء), i.e. its folds/layers. You say: 'anfadhtu kadhā fī thinā kitābī' (أنفذت كذا في ثنى كتابي) — 'I carried out such-and-such within the fold of my letter,' meaning within its folding. Abū 'Ubayd said: al-thinī of a valley or a mountain is its bend. Thinyu al-ḥabl (ثني الحبل) is that which you have folded of a rope. Ṭarafah said: 'By your life, death — what it fails to reach of the young man is like the length of the loosened [rope] and its two folds (thinyāhu) in the hand.' Al-thinī is also [a term for] she-camels: one that has given birth twice (waḍa'at baṭnayn); and thinyuhā (ثنيها) is her offspring, and likewise for a woman [who has borne twice]; and one does not say thilth [third] nor beyond that. Al-thinā, shortened (maqṣūr): a matter repeated twice. In the hadith: 'Lā thinā fī al-ṣadaqah' (لا ثنى في الصدقة) — i.e., it is not taken twice in a year. The poet said: 'Is it, then, because of Bakr that blame has cut me off? By my life, her blame was truly doubled (thinā).' Al-thunyā (الثنيا), with ḍammah, is the noun from istithnāʾ [exception], and likewise al-thunwā (الثنوى), with fatḥah. It is said: 'jāʾū mathnā mathnā' (جاءوا مثنى مثنى) — 'they came two by two.' Mathnā and thunāʾ are both indeclinable, for the reason given regarding thulāth in the chapter of thāʾ. Abū 'Ubaydah said: 'mathnā al-ayādī' (مثنى الأيادي) are the shares that were left over from the sacrificial camel in the game of maysir; the generous man would buy them and give them to those without means. Abū 'Amr said: 'mathnā al-ayādī' is taking one's share time after time. Al-Nābighah said: 'Indeed I complete my [acts of] generosity and grant them mathnā al-ayādī, and I clothe the bowl in dark [fat].' In the hadith: 'Among the signs of the Hour is that the base will be exalted and the noble brought low, and that al-muthannāh will be recited before the heads of the people, unaltered' — it is said this is what is called in Persian 'dū baytī' (دوبيتى), which is singing. Abū 'Ubayd used to interpret it in a different way from this. Thanaytu al-shayʾa thanyan (ثنيت الشيء ثنيا): I folded/bent it. Thanāhu (ثناه): means he restrained him. It is said: 'jāʾa thāniyan min 'inānihi' (جاء ثانيا من عنانه) — 'he came, holding back his reins.' Thanaytuhu (ثنيته) also [means]: I turned him away from his errand,

Thāʾ, nūn, and yāʾ is one root, meaning the repetition of a thing twice, or making it into two things, whether consecutive or distinct. This is your saying thanaytu al-shayʾa thanyan (ثنيت الشيء ثنيا) — 'I doubled/folded the thing.' Al-ithnān (الاثنان) in counting is well known. Al-thinā and al-thinyān (الثنى والثنيان) is the one who ranks after the chief (al-sayyid), as if he were a 'second' to him. He [a poet] said: 'You see our thinā [second] — if he comes, he leads them, and their leader, if he comes to us, would be a thinyān [second].' It is also transmitted as: 'thinyānunā, if he comes to them, would be their leader.' Al-thinā (الثنى) is a matter repeated twice. The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: 'Lā thinā fī al-ṣadaqah' (لا ثنى في الصدقة) — meaning: it is not taken twice in a year. Ma'n said: 'Is it, then, because of Bakr that blame has cut me off? By my life, her blame was truly doubled (thinā).' Al-Namir ibn Tawlab said: 'And if you do not hit upon right guidance, some of the blame would be a repetition (thinyān).' It is said: a woman is thinā (ثنى) if she has borne two children [at once]; one does not say thilth ['third'] nor beyond that. Al-thanāyah (الثناية) is a rope of hair or wool; it may have been so named because it is doubled (yuthnā), or because it is capable of being doubled. He said: '...and the rough stone and the thanāyah...' Al-thunyā (الثنيا) of a slaughter-camel is the head or some other part, when its owner excepts it [from a sale]. The meaning of istithnāʾ (استثناء, 'exception') follows the analogy proper to this chapter, for its object is mentioned twice: once in the general statement and once in the specification. For if you say 'the people went out,' then Zayd and 'Amr are included among 'the people'; then if you say 'except Zayd,' you have mentioned Zayd a second time, explicitly. For this reason some grammarians said that he goes out from that which he had entered into, so that [the exceptive particle] operates upon it just as 'twenty' operates upon 'dirham.' This is a sound and correct statement. Al-mathnāh (المثناة) is the end of the nose-rein at the nose-ring, as if it were the 'second' of the rein. Al-mathnāh (المثناة) is also what is recited from a book and repeated. Allah, exalted is He, said: 'And We have certainly given you seven of the mathānī (سبعا من المثاني)' [Quran 15:87] — meaning that its recitation is doubled and repeated.

Al-thinā and al-ithnān (الثنى والاثنان) are a base for the derived forms of this word, and this is said either with regard to number, or with regard to the repetition found in it, or with regard to both together. Allah, exalted is He, said: 'thānī ithnayn' (ثاني اثنين) — 'the second of two' [Quran 9:40]; 'ithnatā 'ashrata 'aynan' (اثنتا عشرة عينا) — 'twelve springs' [Quran 2:60]; and He said: 'mathnā wa thulātha wa rubā'' (مثنى وثلاث ورباع) — 'two, or three, or four' [Quran 4:3]. So it is said: thannaytuhu tathniyatan (ثنيته تثنية): I became a second to him, or I took half of his property, or I added to him that which made him become two [with him]. Al-thinā (الثنى) is what is repeated twice. He, peace be upon him, said: 'Lā thinā fī al-ṣadaqah' (لا ثنى في الصدقة) — meaning it is not taken twice in a year. The poet said: [entry continues]

Thanā al-shayʾ thanyan (ثنى الشيء ثنيا): he turned part of it back upon another part; and it becomes tathannā and inthanā (تثنى وانثنى, 'to be doubled/folded'). Its athnāʾ (أثناء) and mathānīhi (مثانيه) are its strands and layers, singular thinī, mathnāh, or mathnāh — from Tha'lab. Athnāʾ al-ḥayyah (أثناء الحية): the coils of the snake when it has curled up. Thinyu al-ḥayyah (ثني الحية): its bending; it is also what curves of it when it doubles up, plural athnāʾ. Ghaylān al-Rib'ī borrowed this term for the night, saying: '...until, when the pitch-darkness of night split open, and it drove on a night whose coils (athnāʾ) hung heavy...' On another reading it is [used as] a noun. In the description of our lord the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him: 'He was not tall, nor mutathannī (متثنى)' — meaning stretching out in [excessive] length; it is mostly used for something tall without width. Athnāʾ al-wādī (أثناء الوادي): the bends and sandy stretches of a valley. Al-thinī of a valley or mountain: its bend. Mathānī al-wādī and maḥānīhi: its bends. He swayed (tathannā) in his gait. Al-thinī: one of the athnāʾ of a thing, i.e. its folds/layers; you say: 'anfadhtu kadhā thinī kitābī' (أنفذت كذا ثني كتابي) — I carried out such-and-such within the fold of my letter. In the hadith of 'Ā'ishah, describing her father, may Allah be pleased with them both: 'He took hold of its two ends and bound for you its folds (athnāʾahu)' — meaning what was folded of it, its singular being thinī, referring to the folds and layers of a garment. In the hadith of Abū Hurayrah: 'He would fold it upon himself, its folds (athnāʾ) from its width' — meaning his garment. Thanaytu al-shayʾ thanyan (ثنيت الشيء ثنيا): I folded/bent it. Thanāhu (ثناه) means: he restrained him. It is said: 'jāʾa thāniyan min 'inānihi' — he came, holding back his reins. Thanaytuhu (ثنيته) also [means]: I turned him away from his errand; and likewise if you became a 'second' to him [in some matter]. Thanaytu al-rajula tathniyatan (ثنيت الرجل تثنية): I made him into two [i.e., doubled him/matched him]. Athnāʾ al-wishāḥ (أثناء الوشاح): what is folded of it; from this comes the saying: '...the folds of the ornamented sash appearing...' And his saying: 'If glory of old is counted among a people, my own people are among them — thereat the fingers are doubled (tuthnā) [in counting]...' meaning that they are the select ones who are [few enough to be] counted, for the select do not become numerous — from Ibn al-A'rābī. A ewe described as thāniyah, characterized as bayyinat al-thinī (بينة الثني): one that bends its neck without any [apparent] cause. Thanā rijlahu 'an dābbatihi (ثنى رجله عن دابته): he drew his leg up to his thigh, thereby [dismounting]; it is said of a man when he dismounts from his mount. Al-Layth [said]: if a man intends a direction and you turn him away from it, you say 'thanaytuhu thanyan.' It is said: 'Fulān lā yuthnā 'an qirnihi wa lā 'an wajhihi' — 'So-and-so is not turned back from his rival nor from his course.' He said: if a man does one thing and then joins to it another matter, it is said 'thanā bi-l-amr al-thānī yathnī tathniyatan' — he followed up with the second matter. In the hadith on supplication: 'Whoever says [this] after the prayer wa-huwa thānin rijlahu (وهو ثان رجله)' — meaning while bending his leg in the tashahhud before rising. In another hadith: 'Whoever says [this] before he bends his leg (yuthniya rijlahu)'; Ibn al-Athīr said: this is opposite the first in wording though similar in meaning, for he meant: before he shifts his leg away from the position it held during the tashahhud. In the Noble Revelation: 'Indeed, they fold up (yathnūna) their breasts...' [Quran 11:5]. Al-Farrā' said: it was revealed concerning some of those who used to meet the Prophet, peace be...