Classical Arabic - English Dictionary

شِلَّمٌ Sparks of anger: so in the saying يَتَطَايَرُ شِلَّمُهُ [His sparks of anger fly about]: (Ḳ:) and so شِنَّمُهُ. (TA.)

شَيْلَمٌ The رُؤَان [now applied to darnel-grass (but see this latter word زؤان)] that is [often found] in wheat; also called شَالَمٌ↓ (Mṣb, Ḳ) andشَوْلَمٌ↓; (Ḳ;) of Pers., or foreign, origin; (أَصْلُهُ أَعْجَمِىٌّ;) and it is said that one of its two extremities is sharp and the other thick: (Mṣb:) of the dial. of the Sawád: accord. to IAạr, i. q. زِيوَان [sic.] and سَعِيع: AḤn says that it is a small, oblong, red, erect grain, resembling in form the سُوس [or grub] of wheat; and it does not intoxicate, but renders the wheat very bitter: and in one place he says, the plant of the شيلم spreads upon the ground, and its leaves are like those of the خِلَاف [or salix Aegyptia] that is termed بَلْخِىّ, very green, and juicy, or tender; people eat its leaves when they are fresh, and they are pleasant [to the taste], without bitterness; but its grain is more intensely, or nauseously, bitter (أَعْقَى) than aloes. (TA.) [Forskål, in his Flora Aegypt. Arab. p. 199, after describing the زؤان, says, “شيلم etiam agri vitium; a priore tamen diversa species: decocto plantæ obtunduntur sensus hominis qui operationem chirurgicam subire debet; Avicenna sic referente.” See also سَكَرَةٌ.]

[Golius says, on the authority of a gloss in a copy of the KL, that it signifies also A short, or little, avaricious, man; “vir curtus, avarus:” a meaning, if correct, app. tropical.]