English Explanatory Dictionary

salep

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A starch or jelly made out of plants in the Orchidaceae family, such as early-purple orchids (Orchis mascula).
  2. Alternative form of saloop (“aromatic drink originally made with salep”).

Pronunciation

/ˈsæləp/

Word forms

salep saleps saleb saloop salop

Etymology

Borrowed from French salep, from Turkish salep, from Arabic سَحْلَب (saḥlab, “type of orchid”). According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the Arabic word is said to be a contraction of خُصَى الثَعْلَب (ḵuṣā aṯ-ṯaʕlab, “fox testicles”) (الثَعْلَب (aṯ-ṯaʕlab, “fox”) + خُصًى (ḵuṣan, “testicles”)), referring to the testicle-like root tubers.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on S Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary