جوفa single sense, the jawf of a thing. (root jwf)

Jāfat al-jīfa (جافت الجيفة) and ijtāfat (اجتافت) mean: it became foul-smelling and putrid. The plural of al-jīfa (الجيفة) — which is the dead, foul-smelling corpse — is jiyaf (جيف) and ajyāf (أجياف). And in the ḥadīth: 'No dayyūth (ديوث) nor jayyāf (جياف) shall enter Paradise' — and al-jayyāf is the one who digs up graves (the grave-robber).

Al-jawf (الجوف): the low-lying, depressed part of the land. The jawf of a person is his belly. Al-ajwafān (الأجوفان) ['the two hollow ones']: the belly and the private part. Al-jā'ifa (الجائفة): the thrust/wound that reaches the interior cavity. Abū 'Ubayd said: it may be one that penetrates into the cavity, or one that also passes through it. One says ajaftuhu al-ṭa'na (أجفته الطعنة) and jiftuhu bihā (جفته بها) [I struck his interior with the thrust] — he related this from al-Kisā'ī in the chapter of 'af'altu al-shay'' and 'fa'altu bihi.' And ajaftu al-bāb (أجفت الباب) means: I shut the door. Abū 'Ubayda said: al-mujawwaf (المجوف) is a man with a large belly/interior. Al-A'shā said, describing his she-camel: 'She is the nearest companion; and between me and her is a hollow ʿAlāfī [saddle-frame], a saddle-cloth, and a cushion' — meaning she is the companion who accompanies him. Istajāfa al-shay' (استجاف الشيء) and istajwafa (استجوف) mean: it became wide/spacious. Abū Du'ād said: 'She is wide-mouthed like a sack, her mouth spacious, in which the bit-ring gets lost.' Al-juwwāf (الجواف), with ḍamma, is a kind of fish, and al-jawfī (الجوفي) is the same. The rajaz poet said (Abū al-Ghawth recited it to me): 'When they supped on onion, vinegar, and kanʿad-fish, and roasted jawfī-fish, they spent the night continually drawing out farts, as the Nabaṭ draw out soaked reeds' — he only shortened the word [jawfī] out of poetic necessity. Al-jawaf (الجوف), with fatḥa, is the maṣdar of your saying 'a thing is ajwaf (أجوف).' Dilā' juwf (دلاء جوف): wide/spacious buckets. Shajara jawfā' (شجرة جوفاء): a tree having a hollow. Shay' mujawwaf (شيء مجوف): a thing that is hollow and has a cavity in it. Al-mujawwaf (المجوف) among riding-beasts is one whose piebald [white] marking rises to reach the belly, according to al-Aṣma'ī. He cited from Ṭufayl: 'Gray-speckled of tail, hollowed [white-bellied], while she is dark, with a patch of brocade and cut silk garments.' Ijtāfahu (اجتافه) and tajawwafahu (تجوفه) mean the same: he entered its interior. Shay' jawfī (شيء جوفي): a thing wide in its interior. Al-'Ajjāj said, describing the lair of a wild bull: 'It, when he enters its interior, is spacious, like a reed-hut when the weaver has covered it.' Tajawwafat al-khūṣa al-'urfuj (تجوفت الخوصة العرفج): the leaflet entered the interior of the 'urfuj plant, and that is before it emerges within it. As for their saying 'emptier than Jawf' (أخلى من جوف): it is the name of a valley in the land of 'Ād containing water and trees, protected by a man called Ḥimār. He had sons who died, so he fell into gross disbelief/ingratitude and killed every Muslim who passed by it. Then fire came from the depth of the jawf [valley] and burned him and those in it, and its water sank away. So the Arabs made a proverb of it, saying: 'more ungrateful than Ḥimār' (أكفر من حمار), 'a valley like the jawf of Ḥimār' (واد كجوف الحمار), 'like the jawf of 'Ayr' (كجوف العير), and 'more ruined than the jawf of Ḥimār' (أخرب من جوف حمار).

The letters jīm, wāw, and fā' form a single [root-]meaning, namely the jawf (الجوف) of a thing. One says: this is the jawf (جوف) [interior/cavity] of a person, and the jawf of anything. A jā'ifa (جائفة) thrust/wound is one that reaches the jawf [interior cavity]. A qidr jawfā' (قدر جوفاء) is a cooking-pot wide in its interior. Jawf 'Ayr (جوف عير) is a place protected by a man named Ḥimār (حمار), and in the proverb: 'emptier than the jawf of 'Ayr' (أخلى من جوف عير). Its origin is that a man used to protect a valley of his, and his story has been mentioned in Kitāb al-'Ayn.

Al-jawf (الجوف): the low-lying, depressed part of the land. The jawf of a person is his belly — well known. Ibn Sīda [said]: al-jawf is the interior of the belly; and al-jawf is what is enclosed by the two shoulder-blades, the two upper arms, the ribs, and the two flanks; its plural is ajwāf (أجواف). Jāfahu jawfan (جافه جوفاً): he struck/wounded his interior. Jāfa al-ṣayd (جاف الصيد): he made the arrow enter the game's interior without it emerging from the other side. Al-jā'ifa (الجائفة): the thrust that reaches the interior cavity. Ṭa'na jā'ifa (طعنة جائفة): a thrust that penetrates into the cavity; it is also said to be one that passes through it. Jāfahu bihā (جافه بها) and ajāfahu bihā (أجافه بها): he struck his interior with it. Al-Jawharī [said]: ajaftuhu al-ṭa'na and jiftuhu bihā — he related this from al-Kisā'ī in the chapter of 'af'altu al-shay'' and 'fa'altu bihi.' One says: ṭa'antuhu fa-jiftuhu (طعنته فجفته), and jāfahu al-dawā' (جافه الدواء) — [the medicine] penetrated his interior — so it is mujawwaf (مجوف) when it enters his interior. Wi'ā' mustajāf (وعاء مستجاف): a wide/spacious vessel. Istajāfa al-shay' and istajwafa: it became wide. Abū Dawād said: 'She is wide-mouthed like a sack, her mouth spacious, in which the bit-ring gets lost.' Istajaftu al-makān (استجفت المكان): I found the place to be hollow/spacious. Al-jawaf, with fatḥa: the maṣdar of your saying 'a thing is ajwaf.' In the ḥadīth of the creation of Adam, peace be upon him: 'When he [Iblīs] saw him ajwaf (أجوف), he knew he was a creature who could not restrain himself (lā yatamālak)' — al-ajwaf is one who has a hollow interior, and lā yatamālak means he cannot hold himself together. In the ḥadīth of 'Imrān: ''Umar was ajwaf, jalīdan (أجوف جليداً)' meaning large and great in his belly/interior. In the ḥadīth of Khubayb: 'fa-jāfatnī' (فجافتني) — from the first [meaning], i.e., it reached my interior. In the ḥadīth of Masrūq concerning the camel that fell into a well: 'jawwifūhu' (جوفوه) meaning: stab it in its belly. In the ḥadīth: 'For the jā'ifa (الجائفة), a third of the blood-money' — it is the thrust that penetrates to the interior cavity. One says: jiftuhu (جفته) if you struck his interior, and ajaftuhu al-ṭa'na and jiftuhu bihā. Ibn al-Athīr said: what is meant by al-jawf here is everything possessing a transformative/vital power, such as the belly and the brain. In the ḥadīth of Ḥudhayfa: 'There is none of us but, if examined, would be found to have a jā'ifa or a munaqqila [wound]' — al-munaqqila among wounds is one that displaces the bone from its place; he meant that everyone has some great fault, so he borrowed [the terms] jā'ifa and munaqqila metaphorically for that. Al-ajwafān (الأجوفان): the belly and the genitals, due to the wideness of their cavities. Abū 'Ubayd, on the saying in the ḥadīth: 'Do not forget al-jawf and what it contains (mā wa'ā)' — meaning what enters it of food and drink. Two opinions are given on it: it is said he meant by al-jawf the belly and the genitals together, as [the Prophet] said: 'The thing I fear most for you are the two hollow ones (al-ajwafān)'; and it is said he meant by al-jawf the heart and what it contains and preserves of knowledge of God, Exalted is He. A horse [described as] ajwaf, mujawwaf, and mujawwaf: white in the belly-region up to the extent of the two flanks, the rest of its color being whatever it is. A man [described as] ajwaf: wide in his belly/interior. He [the poet] said — Ḥārith ibn Ka'b: 'Will not [your] wits restrain you from [attacking] us, while you are, among the hollow-bellied, the huge/bulky ones (al-jamākhīr)?' And the saying of Ṣakhr al-Ghayy: 'He let flow, from the night, its griefs, as if...' [entry continues]