Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ The term ¹salūqī ~ salaqī for a breed of dogs that seems to originate from the Middle East is a nominalized nsb-formation, prob. relating to the place name Salūq, which is of uncertain identity and location (Yemen, Armenia, Iran, …?); ultimately, it may go back to “Seleucia” or the Seleucids (for details, see below, section DISC).
▪ Etymological kinship with other items from the same root, whose broad semantic value spectrum, accord. to BAH2008, spans from the main values ‘to throw on the back’ over ‘to flay with a whip’, ‘to insult’, ‘to scald’, ‘to lacerate the skin’ and ‘boiling, cooking lightly by boiling’ to ‘intrinsic nature’, can prob. be excluded.
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▪ The description given in the English Wikipedia (as of 6Feb2022) seems to be rather reliable: »The Saluki is a standardised breed developed from sighthounds – dogs that hunt primarily by sight rather than scent – that was once used by nomadic tribes to run down game animals. The dog was originally bred in the Fertile Crescent. / The origins of the name of the breed is not clear. The Saluki has also been called the gazelle hound, Arabian hound, and the Persian greyhound. [… Report about one hypothesis suggesting Sumerian origin; but highly speculative and little convincing. …] The name used for the modern breed could be derived from Salūqiyyaẗ (Arabic for ‘Seleucia’, a city now in Iraq), appearing in pre-Islamic Arabic poetry. However, this is disputed. […] the Arabic word salūqī indicates ‘person or thing from a place named Salūq’. Arab tradition states that Salūq was an ancient town in Yemen not far from modern Taʕizz, and the Arabs associate this town with the origin of the breed. However, the word salūqī might have been derived from reference to several other places: Salūq in Armenia, and three towns called Salūqiyyaẗ. One has become modern Silifke, Turkey; another is near Antioch (modern Antakya), Turkey; and third is located near Baghdad, Iraq. Baghdad eclipsed Ctesiphon, the capital of the Persian Empire, which was located some 30 km (20 mi) to the southeast. Ctesiphon itself had replaced and absorbed Seleucia, the first capital of the Seleucid Empire (312 BC – 65 AD).«
▪ Like ¹salūqī ~ salaqī ‘greyhound, hunting dog, saluki’, also ^†²salūqī ‘(a sort of) coat of mail’ appears to be *‘the Salūqian, the one from Salūq’, but it is unclear whether the ‘hometown’ of the saluki is identical with that of the coat of mail or whether we are dealing with two separate locations. Accord. to Lane iv 1872, ClassAr lexicography held that “Salūq” was »a town in El-Yemen, or a town or district in the border of Armenia called (al-)Lān; or both (dog and coat of mail) are so called in relation to Salaqiyyaẗ, a town in the Greek Empire, said by al-Masʕūdī to have been on the shore of [the province of] Antioch, remains of which still exist; and if so, it is a rel.n. altered from its proper form«. Cf. also BK1860: »Salouk, Salouka, nom d’une ville dans Ie Yémen ou d’une ville d’Arménie d’où les lévriers et une sorte particulière de cuirasses ont tiré leur nom.«
▪ The rare and obsol. ^†salūqiyyaẗ ‘sitting-place of the captain\pilot’ is obviously a nisba from salūq, too. But details remain obscure.
▪ A relation betw. ¹salūqī ~ salaqī ‘saluki’ and the old term ^†²silq (f. ^†²silqaẗ) for ‘wolf’ is unlikely. For ^†²silq and possible etymologies, cf. ^†SLQ_22 in root entry ↗√SLQ. ▪ …

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For other values of the root, cf. ↗¹salaqa, ↗²salaqa, ↗³salaqa, ↗⁴salaqa, ↗⁵salaqa, ↗tasallaqa, ↗sullāq, ↗salq, ↗¹salīqaẗ, ↗²salīqaẗ and ↗salaqūn as well as, for the overall picture, root entry ↗√SLQ.

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