سَلْوَى

Full Definition

سَلْوَى [accord. to those who make the alif to be a sign of the fem. gender] or سَلْوًى [accord. to those who make that letter to be one of quasicoordination] A certain bird, [in the present day applied to the quail,] i. q. سُمَانَى [which is also applied in the present day to the quail], [or] white [?], resembling the سُمَانَى, or like the pigeon, but longer in the shank and neck than the latter, and of a colour resembling that of the سُمَانَى, quick in motion: accord. to Akh, the word is used as sing. and pl.: [or] Akh says, I have not heard any sing. thereof, and it seems that the single one is thus called like the pl. number, in like manner as دفْلَى is [said to be] applied to one and to the pl. number: or the n. un. is سَلْوَاةٌ; of which Lth cites as an ex. this saying, [in which بَلَّلَهُ should be بَلَّلَهَا,] كَمَا ٱنْتَفَضَ السَّلْوَاةُ بَلَّلَهُ القَطْرُ [Like as shakes the selwáh which the rain has much wetted].

def.2 Also Honey; and so سُلْوَانَةٌ , with damm: the former is used in this sense by a poet, namely, Khálid Ibn-Zuheyr; and Zj says that Khálid has made a mistake, the word سلوى signifying only a certain bird; but, accord. to AAF,
2 السَّلْوَى signifies [also] Whatever renders thee forgetful, or content, or happy, in a case of privation; (كُلُّ مَا سَلَّاكَ, M, K;) and honey is thus called because it renders thee thus by its sweetness.

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Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon

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