Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ SLM_1 ‘(to be/come/remain) safe and sound, unharmed, unimpaired, intact, safe, secure; to escape (a danger); to preserve’ ↗salima, ↗salām, ↗salāmaẗ, ↗salīm
▪ SLM_2 ‘(to be/come) free (from failure), flawless’ ↗salima, ↗salāmaẗ, ↗salīm
▪ SLM_3 ‘to hand over, deliver (sallama, vb. II); to receive, have s.th. handed over or delivered (tasallama, vb. V)’ ↗salima
▪ SLM_4 ‘to approve, consent, accept’ (sallama, vb. II) ↗salima
▪ SLM_5 ‘peace; to keep/make peace; to reconcile (sālama, vb. III); to make peace, become reconciled with one another (tasālama, vb. VI) ↗salām, ↗silm, ↗salm
▪ SLM_6 ‘to greet, salute’ (sallama, vb. II) ↗salām
▪ SLM_7 ‘to leave, give up, abandon; to surrender, commit o.s., resign o.s. (esp. to the will of God, i.e., become a Muslim, embrace Islam) ↗ʔaslama
▪ SLM_8 ‘to surrender, capitulate; to give way, submit, yield, abandon o.s.’ ↗ĭstaslama (vb. X)
▪ SLM_9 ‘forward buying, payment in advance (Isl. Law)’ ↗salam_1
▪ SLM_10 ‘a variety of acacia’ ↗salam_2
▪ SLM_11 ‘reception room, sitting room, parlor’ ↗salāmlik, ↗salām
▪ SLM_12 ‘phalanx, digital bone (of the hand or foot)’ ↗sulāmà, ↗sulāmiyyaẗ
▪ SLM_13 ‘Solomon (n.prop.); salmon’ ↗Sulaymān
▪ SLM_14 ‘mercury chloride’ ↗sulaymānī
▪ SLM_15 ‘Istanbul’ ↗ʔislāmbūl
▪ SLM_16 ‘ladder; stairs, staircase; scale’ ↗sullam
▪ SLM_17 ‘salmon’ ↗salmūn

▪ ^†SLM_18 ‘prisoner; to make s.o. a captive; captivity’: ^†salam, ^†salama i [? also salima a (salam), used transitively]
▪ ^†SLM_19 ‘to bite (s.o.; said of a snake): ^†salama u (salm)
▪ ^†SLM_20 ‘mimosa flava, used as tan’: salam, ?= ^†salmà, a certain plant which becomes green in the [season called] ṣayf [app. here meaning ‘spring’], ?= ^†salamaẗ (or ^†salmaẗ ?) pl. ʔaslām, spiny/thorny plant (Wahrmund). – Does also ^†salama i (salm) ‘to tan (o.’s skin)’ belong here? – And perhaps also (ʔarḍ) ^†maslūmāʔᵘ ‘(land) abounding with the tree called salam ’?
▪ ^†SLM_21 ‘a bitter tree’ ^†silām and ^†salām . – From this also the ints.adj. (ʔarḍ) ^†maslūmāʔᵘ, (a land) abounding with the tree called salam (Lane)?
▪ ^†SLM_22 ‘a kind of tree (resembling the myrtle, grows in the sands and the deserts): ^†salāmān
▪ ^†SLM_23 ‘leathern bucket with a handle’: ^†salm (pl. silām, ʔaslum)
▪ ^†SLM_24 ‘to finish (making a leathern bucket, dalw, [Wahrmund:] from the bark of a tree called salam)’: ^†salama i (salm) [Lane, Wahrmund], ^†sallama (Hava1899)
▪ ^†SLM_25 ‘(hard) stone(s)’: ^†salim (n.u. -aẗ), also ^†silām ; ‘to wipe, or strike, the salimaẗ, i. e. the stone (the Black Stone of the Kaʕbah)’: ^†ĭstalama
▪ ^†SLM_26 ‘tender in the fingers (woman)’: ^†salimaẗ ; ‘(man) soft, or tender, in his feet’: ^†mustalam al-qadamayn
▪ ^†SLM_27 ‘south(ern) wind called ǧanūb ’: ^†sulāmà
▪ ^†SLM_28 ‘leaves of the Theban palm (dawm)’: ^†ʔaslam
▪ ^†SLM_29 ‘vena salvatella (a certain vein in the hand, between the little finger and the finger next to this)’: ^†al-ʔusaylim

▪ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘1 peace, safety, tranquillity (cf. SLM_1, 5, 6). – 2 completeness (cf. SLM_24). – 3 being free from obstacles (cf. SLM_2). – 4 to submit to, become resigned to (cf. SLM_7, 8). – 5 to hand over (cf. SLM_3). – 6 ladder, staircase (cf. SLM_16). – 7 to receive (cf. SLM_3), to stroke (cf. ^†SLM_25), finger bones (cf. SLM_12)’

conc

▪ The striking semantic variety within the root SLM, not only in ClassAr but still today, is the result of a long history of differentiation of an old Sem root, overlapping with inner-Sem loans and, in certain cases, borrowing from non-Sem languages. The many values can be reduced, however, to one major complex plus a number of other items, whose etymological belonging often is obscure.
▪ The major complex can be traced back to Sem *ŠLM ‘to be whole, sound (Huehnergard2011), to be completed, be/remain whole, intact, sound and safe’ (Dolgopolksi2012), which is perhaps an extension in *‑m from a bi-consonantal theme AfrAs *ŠLW ‘to be untroubled/safe, be at ease; to stay quietly, be at rest’¹ (cf. Ar ↗salā ‘to forget, think no more’, salwaẗ ‘consolation, comfort, distraction’).² The idea of ‘being, or remaining, whole, intact’ is still preserved in MSA, together with the meaning of ‘safety’ (= to remain sound, intact) and ‘escape (sc. into safety, unharmed)’ (cf. SLM_1). From this are derived many other values, esp. ‘freedom (from failure, vice, defect), flawlessness’ (SLM_2) and ‘peace, reconciliation’ (SLM_5) (hence ‘to wish peace upon s.o.’ = SLM_6 ‘to greet, salute’ > SLM_11 ‘selamlik, reception room’). The fighter who ‘surrenders’ (SLM_8) and seeks, or is taken into, ‘captivity’ (^†SLM_18) belongs here, too, because capitulation implies escaping ‘unharmed, safe, intact’ from a battle and entering in a state of ‘safety’ (which is also the original meaning of Ar salām, now mainly used to denote ‘peace’). Long before the advent of Islam already, this kind of submission also had taken on a religious meaning (‘committing, or resigning, o.s. to the will of God ’, SLM_7), which under the prophet Muhammad soon developed the specific meaning of ‘becoming a Muslim, embracing Islam’. The value ‘to approve of s.th., consent to, accept’, expressed by the D-stem (sallama, vb. II) is probably properly a declarative *‘to find sound, intact, whole (salīm)’ (SLM_4), while another value of the same D-stem, ‘to hand over, deliver’ (SLM_3), either seems to have developed from the idea, just mentioned, of submitting, and thus ‘delivering’, o.s. to s.o. else, or it is denominative from salam_1 ‘forward buying, payment in advance’ (SLM_9), a value the like of which is to be found attached to derivations from the root Sem *ŠLM not only in Ar but in a number of other Sem langs too; the original meaning seems to have been a present, given to kings, officials, or gods, to obtain benevolence and a kind of ‘safety guarantee’ or ‘ensurance’; cf. however Kerr2014 who holds that »[i]n Ar, the IInd form has undergone the development ‘to make healthy, unharmed’ > ‘to protect from damage’ > ‘to deliver safely’ > ‘to deliver’ (compare to the Fr sur-rendre), in the sense of dedito «.
▪ A number of obsolete values may either belong to the same group that goes back to Sem *ŠLM ‘to be whole, sound’ or stem from a distinct, though homonymous root. Such a case is the meaning ‘to bite (s.o.; said of a snake)’ (^†SLM_19). Here, Nöldeke assumes that this value has grown from a kind of apotropaic use, or is a euphemism: a person who is bitten by a snake, or anyone deadly wounded, is called salīm ‘safe and sound, healthy’ hoping or wishing that s/he will survive. The word ^†salm ‘leathern bucket with a handle’ (SLM_23) at first sight looks at if it was an independent value in its own right; but the meaning ‘to finish (making a leathern bucket, dalw)’ (^†SLM_24) connects the leathern bucket to the notion of ‘completion, wholeness, etc.’ so that the bucket could be an individual specialization. Other sources, however, say that we are dealing with the completion of a bucket made from the bark of a tree called salam (SLM_10, ^†SLM_20, ^†SLM_21, ^†SLM_22).
▪ As for borrowings from non-Sem languages, the easiest to recognize is of course the MSA word for ‘salmon’, sal(a)mūn, which is from Lat (cf. SLM_17). A less obvious borrowing from Lat is however also sulaymānī ‘mercury chloride’; it goes back to Lat sublimatum ‘id.’ (SLM_14).
▪ An inner-Sem borrowing is the n.prop. Sulaymān ‘Solomon’ (SLM_13, from Syr < Hbr), in itself of course related to the complex Sem *ŠLM ‘to be whole, sound’ and thus, ultimately, still akin to Ar salima etc. Another inner-Sem borrowing (< Aram or Akk) is probably also sullam ‘ladder, stairs’ (SLM_16); but it may also be a comSem word and go back directly to a pSem ancestor.
▪ Of obscure etymology are still several plant names (cf. SLM_10, ^†SLM_20, ^†SLM_21, ^†SLM_22), the term for ‘phalanx, digital bone (of hand or foot)’ (SLM_12) and a number of words that have become obsolete in MSA (cf. ^†SLM_25, ^†SLM_26, ^†SLM_27, ^†SLM_28, ^†SLM_29). A number of these may be fig. use of others, though the tertium comparationis is less than obvious. The form ^†ʔusaylim, e.g., is clearly a diminutive; but is it from sulāmà ‘digital bone’ or from some other item?

1. The latter is further connected by Dolgopolsky2012#2046 to IE *sōlo‑, *solwo‑ ‘entire’ (> oInd sarva‑ ‘entire, whole, intact, all, every’, Av haᵘrva‑ id., ‘sound’, oPers haruva‑ ‘whole, entire’, nPers har ‘every, all, all kind of, any’, Grk hólos, hoûlos ‘whole, entire, complete’, hoúlō ‘to be whole, sound’, Lat salvus ‘safe, unhurt, well, sound’, salūs / salūt-is ‘health, soundness’, Arm ołǯ , from *soli̯o‑, ‘alive, living; sound, healthy; complete, entire’. Together with the AfrAs *ŠLW this is believed to originate in Nostr *s̄alû (or *s̄Eʔ alû) ‘intact’ (> ‘entire’), ‘in good condition, healthy’. 2. Cf. also Klein1987 who thinks that Hbr šālôm is related to Hbr ŠLH in the same way as Hbr ʕērôm ‘naked’ stands to Hbr ʕRH ‘to lay bare’ (cf. Ar ↗ʕRY).

hist

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cogn

See references given above.

disc

To what is said in the CONCISE section above, it may be added:

▪ SLM_3 ‘to receive’: Interestingly enough, BAH2008 group this value together with ‘finger bones’ (SLM_12) and ‘to stroke’ (cf. ^†SLM_25).
▪ SLM_9: The meaning ‘forward buying, payment in advance’, esp. as a technical term in Islamic law, used synonymously with ↗salaf, seems to be a development that is specific of Ar salam_1. In other Sem languages, the original value of a present, given to kings, officials, or gods, to obtain benevolence and a kind of ‘safety guarantee’ or ‘ensurance’, is still better preserved, cf. esp. Hbr šäläm ‘sacrifice for alliance or friendship, “peace offering”’.
▪ SLM_11: salāmlik ‘reception room, sitting room, parlor’ is a reimport from Tu selamlık.
▪ SLM_12 ‘phalanx, digital bone (of the hand or foot)’: BAH2008 group this value together with ‘to receive’ (SLM_3) and ‘to stroke’ (cf. ^†SLM_25).
▪ SLM_13: The value ‘salmon’ is generated in the ʔiḍāfaẗ ḥūt Sulaymān, lit. the ‘fish of Solomon’. Perhaps a late folk etymology?
▪ SLM_15: ʔislāmbūl is obviously a pious name for ‘Istanbul’, in an attempt to make the Ottoman capital a distinctly Islamic city.
▪ SLM_16: The Sem root of Ar sullam ‘ladder, stairs’ is not ŠLM but Sem *SLM.
▪ SLM_17: Contrary to what one may expect, salmūn ‘salmon’ is not a modern borrowing from Engl or Fr, but already attested as early as C13.

▪ SLM_25 ^†salim (n.u. ‑aẗ) ‘(hard) stone(s)’: the meaning ‘to wipe, or strike’ of the Gt-stem ^†ĭstalama is usually derived from salimaẗ in the specific meaning of ‘the Black Stone (of the Kaʕbah)’; BAH2008 however group the value ‘to stroke’ together with ‘to receive’ (SLM_3) and ‘finger bone’ (SLM_12).
▪ SLM_26 ^†salimaẗ ‘tender in the fingers (woman)’ seems to be a specific use connected to stroking (SLM_25); the same holds for ^†mustalam al-qadamayn ‘soft, or tender, in his feet (man)’.
▪ SLM_27 ^†sulāmà ‘south(ern) wind called ǧanūb ’: the form of the word which is identical with the one signifying ‘phalanx, finger bones’ (SLM_12) would suggest that this value is figurative use, perhaps *‘a wind touching one (as tenderly as) a finger’ (?).

west

▪ For Engl shalom, shalom aleichem, n.prop. Absalom, Solomon, Salome, perh. also schlemiel cf. ↗salām.
▪ For Islam, Muslim, Mussulman ↗ʔaslama.

deriv

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