سلحفاة

Meaning

1. turtle
2. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis) ellipsis of سُلَحْفَاة بَرِّيَّة (sulaḥfā(t) barriyya, “tortoise”)

Concepts

tortoise

turtle

🐢

sea turtle

terrapin

Turtle

🐢

Synonyms

سَلاحِف

سُلَحْفَاة

Translations

Schildkröte

🐢

tortue

tartaruga

🐢

tartaruga

🐢

schildpad

tortuga

🐢

kaplumbağa

🐢

χελώνα

tortue terrestre

testudo

χελώνια

tortuga

🐢

zeeschildpad

Meeresschildkröte

Pronounced as (IPA)

/su.laħ.faːh/

Etymology

Probably derived from an unattested Aramaic form akin to Classical Syriac ܣܠܘܦܝܬܐ (sallōp̄īṯā), from Akkadian 𒃻𒅮𒈾 (šeleppûm, “turtle, snake; a shell, egg, canister”). Distortion of the Akkadian form in either Aramaic or Arabic after native roots such as س ل ح (s l ḥ), س ل خ (s l ḵ), and ز ح ل (z ḥ l) is likely, as with many terms for organisms encountered only at special occasions (see exemplarily Russian берескле́т (beresklét, “spindle tree”)); Arabic vernaculars offer forms like سُحَلْفَاة (suḥalfāh), زُلَحْفَاة (zulaḥfāh), زَحَلْفَة (zaḥalfa) and زِلَحْفَة (zilaḥfa). Compare the variants of سَرَطَان (saraṭān, “crab”) for a similar case.