وصفIbn Fāris gives one root sense: adorning or qualifying a thing, i.e. describing it. He … (root wsf)

Al-waṣf (الوصف): your describing a thing by its adornment (ḥilya) and its quality (naʿt). It is said of a young horse (muhr) when it begins to show something of good gait: 'qad waṣafa' (قد وصف) — meaning it has 'described' the gait, i.e., shown it for whoever wants [to observe] it. It is said: 'this is a colt at the time it waṣafa [showed its gait].' [And in the ḥadīth of al-Ḥasan: that he disliked al-muwāṣafa (المواصفة) in a sale.] It is said of the waṣīf (الوصيف): 'qad awṣafa' (قد أوصف), and awṣafat al-jāriya (أوصفت الجارية) [the girl reached the age of service]. And [the forms]: waṣīf, wuṣafāʾ, waṣīfa, waṣāʾif (وصيف، وصفاء، وصيفة، وصائف).

Waṣaftu al-shayʾ (وصفت الشيء) waṣf(an) wa-ṣifa(tan) [I described the thing] — the hāʾ [in ṣifa] is a substitute for the wāw [of the root]. Tawāṣafū al-shayʾ (تواصفوا الشيء) — 'they described the thing to one another' — from al-waṣf. Ittaṣafa al-shayʾ (اتصف الشيء) means it became a thing mutually described [i.e. became known/famed by description]. Ṭarafa ibn al-ʿAbd said: "Indeed, sufficient for me, from a matter I had resolved upon, was a neighbor like the neighbor of al-Ḥudhāfī, who became ittaṣafa (اتصفا)" — meaning he became described/renowned for good neighborliness. And the saying of al-Shammākh, describing a camel: "When she travels by night, her forelegs waṣafat (وصفت) [show excellence] for her, night-travel, on a night with no dozing" — meaning she excelled at travel. Bayʿ al-muwāṣafa (بيع المواصفة): 'sale by description' — to sell a thing by description, without [the buyer] seeing it. Al-waṣīf (الوصيف): the servant, whether a boy or a girl. It is said waṣafa al-ghulām (وصف الغلام) — the boy reached the age of service — so he is a waṣīf, with [verbal noun] al-waṣāfa (الوصافة). Plural: wuṣafāʾ (وصفاء). Thaʿlab said: and sometimes they said of a girl waṣīfa (وصيفة), with [verbal nouns] al-waṣāfa and al-īṣāf (الوصافة والإيصاف). Plural: al-waṣāʾif (الوصائف). Istawṣaftu al-ṭabīb li-dāʾī (استوصفت الطبيب لدائي): 'I asked the physician [to prescribe] for my illness' — meaning you ask him to describe to you what you should treat yourself with. Al-ṣifa (الصفة) [as an accident/quality] is like knowledge (al-ʿilm) or blackness (al-sawād, i.e., accidental attributes). But the grammarians do not mean by al-ṣifa this [sense]; for al-ṣifa to them is al-naʿt (النعت, the qualifying adjective), and al-naʿt is the active participle (ism al-fāʿil), such as ḍārib (ضارب, 'striking'), or the passive participle (maf ʿūl), such as maḍrūb (مضروب, 'struck'), or whatever reverts to these two in meaning, such as mithl (مثل, 'like') and shibh (شبه, 'resembling'), and what runs in that course. They say: raʾaytu akhāka al-ẓarīf (رأيت أخاك الظريف) — 'I saw your clever brother' — so al-akh (الأخ) is al-mawṣūf (الموصوف, the qualified), and al-ẓarīf (الظريف) is al-ṣifa (the qualifier). For this reason they said: it is not permissible for a thing to be annexed (in construct) to its own qualifier, just as it is not permissible for it to be annexed to itself, because the qualifier is, to them, [in fact identical with] the qualified. Do you not see that al-ẓarīf is [none other than] al-akh?

Wāw, ṣād, and fāʾ: a single root meaning the adorning/describing of a thing. Waṣaftuhu (وصفته) — 'I described it' — aṣifu, waṣf(an) (وصفا). Al-ṣifa (الصفة) is the necessary/attendant sign of a thing, just as one says wazantuhu wazn(an) (وزنته وزنا), and al-zina (الزنة) is the measure of a thing. It is said: ittaṣafa al-shayʾ (اتصف الشيء) fī ʿayn al-nāẓir — the thing was such that it could be described, in the eye of the beholder. As for their saying waṣafat al-nāqa (وصفت الناقة) wuṣūf(an) (وصوفا) — meaning the she-camel excelled in gait — this comes from their calling the male servant waṣīf (وصيف) and the female servant waṣīfa (وصيفة); and it is said awṣafat al-jāriya (أوصفت الجارية), because the two [servants] are described [i.e., their qualities specified] at the time of sale.

Al-waṣf (الوصف): mentioning a thing by its adornment and its quality. Al-ṣifa (الصفة): the state in which a thing is found, in terms of its adornment and quality — like al-zina (الزنة), which is the measure of a thing. Al-waṣf may be either true or false. He, exalted, said: "and do not say, of what your tongues describe (taṣifu), the lie" (Qur'an 16:116) — alerting to the fact that what they mention is falsehood. And His saying, mighty and exalted: "Glory be to the Lord of might, above what they describe (yaṣifūn)" (Qur'an 37:180) — an alert that most of the attributes [ascribed to Him] are not as many people suppose — attributes from which no likeness or comparison can be conceived — and that He is exalted above what the disbelievers say; hence He, mighty and exalted, said: "and His is the highest similitude" (Qur'an 16:60). It is said: ittaṣafa al-shayʾ (اتصف الشيء) fī ʿayn al-nāẓir — when it admits of description. And waṣafa al-baʿīr (وصف البعير) waṣūf(an) (وصوفا) — when it excels in gait. Al-waṣīf (الوصيف): the [male] servant; al-waṣīfa (الوصيفة): the [female] servant. It is said: awṣafat al-jāriya (أوصفت الجارية) [the girl reached the age of service].

Waṣafa al-shayʾ lahu (وصف الشيء له) wa-ʿalayhi (وعليه) waṣf(an) wa-ṣifa(tan): he adorned/characterized it; the hāʾ [in ṣifa] is a substitute for the wāw. It is said: al-waṣf (الوصف) is the verbal noun (maṣdar) and al-ṣifa (الصفة) is the adornment/attribute itself. Al-Layth: al-waṣf is your describing a thing by its adornment and its quality. Tawāṣafū al-shayʾ (تواصفوا الشيء) — from al-waṣf. And His saying, mighty and exalted: "and our Lord is the Most Merciful, whose aid is sought against what you describe (taṣifūn)" — He meant what they describe of falsehood. Istawṣafahu al-shayʾ (استوصفه الشيء): he asked him to describe it to him. Ittaṣafa al-shayʾ (اتصف الشيء): it became possible to describe it. Suḥaym said: "And [she is] like a statuette among the statuettes of Maysān, delightful to behold and in ittaṣāf(an) (اتصافا) [describability]" — ittaṣafa is from al-waṣf. And ittaṣafa al-shayʾ means it became mutually described [famed by description]. Ṭarafa ibn al-ʿAbd said: "Indeed, sufficient for me, from a matter I had resolved upon, was a neighbor like the neighbor of al-Ḥudhāqī, who became ittaṣafa (اتصفا)" — meaning he became described/renowned for good neighborliness. Waṣafa al-muhr (وصف المهر): the colt showed good gait, as though it 'described' the thing [its own quality]. It is said of the colt, when it displays something of good gait: 'qad waṣafa,' meaning it has shown the gait. One says: 'a colt at the time it waṣafa.' And waṣafa al-muhr means it excelled in its gait. Al-Shammākh said: "When she travels by night, her forelegs waṣafat (وصفت) [show excellence] for her, night-travel, on a night with no dozing" — meaning she excelled at travel. Al-Aṣmaʿī said: meaning [her forelegs] display for her the night-travel of a night in which she does not doze. Al-Qutāmī said: "And led to the howdah-woman was a Raḥabī [camel], a massive, well-built one, yaṣifu (يصف) [displaying excellence in] the file [of camels]" — meaning it displays the gait of the caravan-file. Bayʿ al-muwāṣafa (بيع المواصفة): to sell a thing without [the buyer's] seeing it. In the ḥadīth of al-Ḥasan: that he disliked al-muwāṣafa in sale. Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said: if a man sells something in his possession on the basis of description, the sale is binding upon him; and Isḥāq said likewise. Al-Azharī said: this is a sale on a guaranteed description without a specified term, and this is the view of al-Shāfiʿī; the people of Mecca do not permit salam [forward sale] unless it is for a known term. Ibn al-Athīr said: bayʿ al-muwāṣafa is that a man sells what he does not [yet] have, then acquires it and delivers it to the buyer; it is so called because he sold by description, without [the buyer's] inspection or [the seller's] possession of ownership [at the time]. And his saying, in the ḥadīth of ʿUmar, may God be pleased with him: "in lā yashiffu fa-innahu yaṣifu" (إن لا يشف فإنه يصف) — meaning: it describes/outlines it [the body] — he meant: the thin garment, if the body does not show through it transparently, then due to its thinness it 'describes' the body, so that the bulk of the limbs appears through it; this was likened to 'description' (al-ṣifa), just as a man describes his merchandise [to a buyer]. Ghulām waṣīf (غلام وصيف): a youth; the feminine is waṣīfa (وصيفة). In the ḥadīth of Umm Ayman: that she was a waṣīfa to ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, meaning a slave-girl (ama). One says awṣafa (أوصف) and waṣufa (وصف) waṣāfa(tan) (وصافة). Ibn al-Aʿrābī: awṣafa al-waṣīf (أوصف الوصيف) — when his stature became complete; and awṣafat al-jāriya (أوصفت الجارية) [the girl reached that stage]. And [the forms]: waṣīf, wuṣafāʾ, waṣīfa, waṣāʾif. As for Abū ʿUbayd, he said: waṣīf, with [verbal noun] al-waṣāfa; as for Thaʿlab, he said: with al-īṣāf (الإيصاف), and the two of them placed it among the verbal nouns that have no [corresponding] verbs. And in the ḥadīth of Abū Dharr, may God be pleased with him... [entry continues]