الف

From Arabic أَلِف (ʔalif).

الف • (elif)

1. alif
2. something shaped like an alif

• Turkish: elif

• Redhouse, James W. (1890) “الف”, in A Turkish and English Lexicon‎^[1], Constantinople: A. H. Boyajian, page 187

Borrowed from Arabic أَلِف (ʔalif).

اَلِف • (alef)

1. alif (the letter ا, the first letter of the Persian and Arabic abjads)
   • c. 1260s, Jalāl ad-Dīn Mohammad Rūmī, translated by Reynold A. Nicholson, مثنوی معنوی [Masnavi-ye-Ma'navi], volume I, verse 1514:

     ما که‌‌ایم اندر جهان پیچ پیچ
     چون الف او خود چه دارد هیچ هیچ

     mā ki-ēm andar jahān-i pēč pēč
     čūn alif ō xwad či dārad hēč hēč

     Who are we? In this tangled world
     What [thing other than He] indeed hath He [who is single] like alif? Nothing, nothing.

     (Classical Persian transliteration)

2. (figurative) something or someone erect and tall like the letter ا; (in particular) the beautiful, slender stature of the beloved
   • c. 1390, Shams-ud-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfiẓ, “Ghazal 317”, in دیوان حافظ [The Divān of Ḥāfiẓ]‎^[2]:

     نیست بر لوحِ دلم جز الفِ قامتِ دوست
     چه کنم حرفِ دگر یاد نداد استادم

     nēst bar lawh-i dil-am juz alif-i qāmat-i dōst
     či kunam harf-i digar yād na-dād ustād-am

     The tablet of my heart has nothing [written] on it but the alif of my love's figure;
     What can I do? My master taught me no other letter.

     (Classical Persian transliteration)

   • c. 1520, Selim I of the Ottoman Empire, edited by Benedek Péri, The Persian Dīvān of Yavuz Sulṭān Selīm, Budapest, Hungary: Research Centre for the Humanities, Eötvös Loránd Research Network, →ISBN, page 188:

     بدل از خار خار هجر الف‌ها
     من دیوانه را سرو سمن بس

     ba-dil az xār xār-i hajr-i alif-hā
     man-i dēwāna rā sarw-i saman bas

     The affliction to the heart from bidding the alifs [slender beauties] farewell
     Is enough of jasmine cypresses [beauties as slender as cypresses and beautiful as jasmines] for me, the madman.

     (Classical Persian transliteration)

• → Hindustani:

  Hindi: अलिफ़ (alif)

  Urdu: اَلِف (alif)

• → Punjabi:

  Gurmukhi script: ਅਲਿਫ਼ (alif)

  Shahmukhi script: اَلِف (alif)

Borrowed from Classical Persian الف (alif), from Arabic أَلِف (ʔalif).

• (Standard Urdu) IPA^(key): /ə.lɪf/

الِف • (alif) m (Hindi spelling अलिफ़)

1. name of the first letter of the Urdu alphabet; alif

• Platts, John T. (1884) “الف”, in A dictionary of Urdu, classical Hindi, and English, London: W. H. Allen & Co.