سالوس

Arabic

Root
س ل س (s-l-s)

Alternative forms

• شَالُوس (šālūs)

Etymology

In view of the variation between س (s) and ش (š) and the pattern which is not part of Arabic grammar, but Aramaic grammar and loans, we may be completely wrong to associate with سَلِس (salis, “pliant”) and the word will then by neither Arabic nor Iranian nor Greek. However the لُغَةُ السِّينِ (luḡatu s-sīni) of the Sāsānī Gypsies is known for being “a mixed language that takes the form of embedding a substitutive vocabulary into the grammatical structure of other languages” without independent grammar, a “para-language” with intentionally opaque patches (Richardson 2017 pp. 122, 138, 151). See also the obscure Greek σόλος (sólos, “a lump of iron used in throwing exercises”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /saː.luːs/

Noun

سَالُوس • (sālūs) m

1. (obsolete, criminal slang) slick words, blandishment

Declension

Declension of noun سَالُوس (sālūs)

Singular	basic singular triptote
	Indefinite	Definite	Construct
Informal	سَالُوس sālūs	السَّالُوس as-sālūs	سَالُوس sālūs
Nominative	سَالُوسٌ sālūsun	السَّالُوسُ as-sālūsu	سَالُوسُ sālūsu
Accusative	سَالُوسًا sālūsan	السَّالُوسَ as-sālūsa	سَالُوسَ sālūsa
Genitive	سَالُوسٍ sālūsin	السَّالُوسِ as-sālūsi	سَالُوسِ sālūsi

Derived terms

• شَوْلَسَ (šawlasa, “to pull a confidence trick”)

Descendants

• → Late Koine Greek: σαλός (salós, “fool”)
• → Classical Persian: سالوس (sālūs, “deceit; deceiver; deceitful”)

Further reading

• Bosworth, Clifford Edmund (1976) The Medieval Islamic Underworld. The Banū Sāsān in Arabic Society and Literature. Part Two: The Arabic Jargon Texts: the Qaṣīda Sāsāniyyas of Abū Dulaf and Ṣafī d-Dīn, Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 231: “Dr. D.N. MacKenzie tells me that this word has no known Iranian etymology, and may accordingly be a loanword in Persian.”
• Richardson, Kristina (2017) “Tracing a Gypsy Mixed Language through Medieval and Early Modern Arabic and Persian Literature”, in Der Islam‎^[1], volume 94, number 1, →DOI, pages 115–157
• Shahîd, Irfan (1989) Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fifth Century, Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, page 268 fn. 173, where the Greek is declared to be possibly from Persian, obviously since the Arabic is found in no normal place

Persian

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic سَالُوس (sālūs).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Persian) IPA^(key): [sɑː.luːs]

 

• (Dari, formal) IPA^(key): [sɑː.luːs]

• (Dari, formal) IPA^(key): [sɑː.luːs]
  • (Kabuli) IPA^(key): [sɑː.luːs]
  • (Hazaragi) IPA^(key): [sɔː.lus]

• (Iran, formal) IPA^(key): [sɒː.luːs]

• (Tajik, formal) IPA^(key): [sɔ.lus]

Readings
Classical reading?	sālūs
Dari reading?	sālūs
Iranian reading?	sâlus
Tajik reading?	solus

Noun

سالوس • (sâlus)

1. (archaic) deceiver; hypocrite
2. deceit; hypocrisy