The bāsil—this is the active participle derived from basula yabsulu, just as sharufa yashrufu. Basālah denotes courage and firmness, while its opposite is fashula yafshalu, fashālah—on the same fiʿlah pattern, both as noun and verbal noun—and it signifies baseness.

The baṭal, plural abṭāl. Two explanations have been offered for the name:
(1) Some say it is because he(1) nullifies the deeds of his peers, so the courage of brave men is rendered void in his presence; baṭal is therefore passive in sense, for the underlying verb is intransitive.
(2) Others hold that it is active in both wording and meaning: he is the one who extinguishes the courage of others, reducing it to nothing; thus baṭal corresponds to mubṭil(2) (one who nullifies). It is also possible that baṭal be understood in the passive sense(3), like mukram, that is, the man whom others have rendered idle: on account of his valor people avoid him, and by surrendering to him and refusing to fight, they cancel their own action.

The ṣandīd—with a kasrah on the ṣād; the common folk commit a solecism(4) and say ṣandīd with a fatḥah. In Arabic no word appears on the faʿīl pattern with the first radical opened; rather, it is pronounced with a kasrah in nouns, such as qindīl (lamp) and ḥiltīt (asafoetida), and in adjectives, such as shimlīl (intense cold). A ṣandīd is the man before whom nothing can stand.