عَلَجَانٌ
Root: علج
Full Definition
عَلَجَانٌ
and
عَلَجٌ A certain sort of plant; growing in the sand: n. un. with ة: AHn says, on the authority of certain of the Arabs of the desert, that it grows in the form of slender strings, intensely green, of a greenness like that of herbs, or leguminous plants, inclining to yellowness, bare, having no leaves: he says [also] that the عَلَج [or عَلَجَان, as will be shown by what follows,] is, with the people of Nejd, a sort of trees [or shrubs] having no leaves, consisting only of bare strings, of a dusty green colour: the asses eat it, and their teeth become yellow in consequence of their eating it; wherefore one says of him who has yellow teeth, كَأَنَّ فَاهُ فُو حِمَارٍ
أَكَلَ عَلَجَانًا [As though his mouth were the mouth of an ass that had eaten 'alaján; by the mouth being meant the teeth, as is often the case]: and he says that it sometimes grows, not in the sand, but in soft, or plain, tracts; and accord. to some, the عَلَجَان is a sort of trees of a dark green colour, not having leaves, consisting only of twigs, one of such trees occupying the space of a man sitting; growing in plain, or soft, land, and not eaten by the camels unless of necessity: Az says that the عَلَجَان is a sort of trees resembling that called
عَلَنْدًى, which he had seen in the desert: and its pl. [or rather the pl. of the n. un. (عَلَجَةٌ) of its syn.
عَلَجٌ ] is عَلَجَاتٌ.
Lane's Lexicon
+
Hans Wehr
+
Mufradat
Three dictionaries. One search.
"The product of over thirty years of unrelenting labor — to this day supreme in the field of Arabic lexicography."
47,000+ classical entries
Root-based navigation
Full text search
Hyperlinked definitions
Try Now
Trusted by researchers at University of Michigan, Duke, Alberta & more