شَيْلَمٌ

Full Definition

شَيْلَمٌ The رُؤَان [now applied to darnel-grass (but see this latter word زؤان)] that is [often found] in wheat; also called شَالَمٌ and شَوْلَمٌ ; of Pers., or foreign, origin; (أَصْلُهُ أَعْجَمِىٌّ;) and it is said that one of its two extremities is sharp and the other thick: of the dial. of the Sawád: accord. to IAar, i. q. زِيوَان [sic.] and سَعِيع: AHn says that it is a small, oblong, red, erect grain, resembling in form the سُوس [or grub] of wheat; and it does not intoxicate, but renders the wheat very bitter: and in one place he says, the plant of the شيلم spreads upon the ground, and its leaves are like those of the خِلَاف [or salix Aegyptia] that is termed بَلْخِىّ, very green, and juicy, or tender; people eat its leaves when they are fresh, and they are pleasant [to the taste], without bitterness; but its grain is more intensely, or nauseously, bitter (أَعْقَى) than aloes. [Forskål, in his Flora Aegypt. Arab. p. 199, after describing the زؤان, says, “ شيلم etiam agri vitium; a priore tamen diversa species: decocto plantæ obtunduntur sensus hominis qui operationem chirurgicam subire debet; Avicenna sic referente. ” See also سَكَرَةٌ.]

def.2 [Golius says, on the authority of a gloss in a copy of the KL, that it signifies also A short, or little, avaricious, man; “ vir curtus, avarus: ” a meaning, if correct, app. tropical.]

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Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon

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