← Back to Lisan al-Arab

سلحف

Root entry · 6 derived lemmas

This root primarily concerns the turtle, specifically its different names and genders. It also touches upon the morphology of derived words related to turtles.

Derived headwords

سُلَحْفَاةnoun
  1. 1.
    turtleboth

    A turtle, specifically referring to the female of the species in some dialects.

سُلَحْفَاءnoun
  1. 1.
    turtleclassical

    A turtle, one of the water creatures.

سُلَحْفَاnoun
  1. 1.
    turtleclassical

    A turtle, one of the water creatures.

سُلَحْفِيَّةnoun
  1. 1.
    turtleclassical

    A turtle, one of the water creatures. It is considered a pentasyllabic word (khumasi) with an added alif, which becomes a ya due to the preceding kasra.

سَلَحْفَاةnoun
  1. 1.
    turtleclassical

    A turtle, one of the water creatures.

الغَيْلَمnoun
  1. 1.
    male turtleclassical

    The male of the turtle species.

Parallel reading

الذكر من السلاحف: الغيلم، والأنثى، في لغة بني أسد: سلحفاة.
The male of the turtles is Al-Ghaylam, and the female, in the dialect of Banu Asad, is Sulahfah.
ابن سيده: السلحفاة والسلحفاء والسلحفا والسلحفية والسلحفاة، بفتح اللام، واحدة السلاحف من دواب الماء،
Ibn Sidah said: Al-Sulahfah, Al-Sulhufaa', Al-Sulhufaa, Al-Sulhafiyyah, and Al-Sulhufaa' (with fath on the lam) are singulars of the turtles, which are water creatures.
وقيل: هي الأنثى من الغيالم.
And it is said: it is the female of Al-Ghayalim.
الجوهري: سلحفية ملحق بالخماسي بألف، وإنما صارت ياء للكسرة قبلها مثال بلهنية، والله أعلم.
Al-Jawhari said: Sulhafiyyah is attached to the pentasyllabic (khumasi) with an alif, and it became a ya due to the kasra before it, similar to Balhaniyyah. And God knows best.