Quranic root
سلخ
s · l · kh
The root centers on removing something from its skin, covering, or enclosing layer.
The literal act of skinning extends to stripping clothing, shedding a slough, becoming detached, drawing daylight out of night, and metaphorically passing through or reaching the end of a period. Related nouns denote skins, sloughs, stripped objects, places of skinning, and things that shed or are shed.
- Maqāyīs · row 2468
- Mufradāt · row 715
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- Quran senses
- 3
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
سَلَخَ
salakha
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 1 occurrence
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
To draw something out or strip it away from what covers or surrounds it; in the Quran, to draw the daylight out of the night.
The Quranic occurrence describes the removal of النهار from الليل, with the image of one layer being stripped away from another.
- Lane · entry 41807
- Mufradāt · row 715
Selected Quran examples
Quran 36:37word 4
“We withdraw”
اِنْسَلَخَ
āinsalakha
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form VII
- Form
- VII
- Quran occurrences
- 2 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
To become detached or wholly separated from something.
The Quranic use at 7:175 describes detachment from a former state or attachment; the form is intransitive and presents the separation as occurring to the subject.
- Lane · entry 41810
- Mufradāt · row 715
Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:175word 7
“but he detached”
To pass away or come to the end of a period.
Used of a defined period, especially a month or other span of time, as in the Quranic expression for the passing of the sacred months.
- Lane · entry 41810
- Mufradāt · row 715
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:5word 2
“have passed”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 3 occurrencesBroader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 38 Classical meanings
سَلَخَ
To strip or skin the hide of a sheep or goat.
The direct physical use is chiefly described with the hide of a sheep or goat.
- Lane · entry 41807
سَلَخَ
To pull off or strip off a garment.
Used with clothing as the object of removal.
- Lane · entry 41807
سَلَخَ
To pass through a month or reach its end.
A figurative time expression, used of a month or its completion.
- Lane · entry 41807
- Lane · entry 41812
سَلَخَ
To cause skin, hide, or feathers to peel or come off.
Attested of heat, mange, or a disease affecting the covering of a person, animal, or bird.
- Lane · entry 41807
سَلَخَ
Of a plant, to shed its foliage and become green again after drying.
A plant-growth usage describing renewed greenness after the loss or drying of foliage.
- Lane · entry 41807
سَلَخَ
To strip away the surface of a place by digging until water is reached.
A figurative expression comparing excavation to removing a hide.
- Lane · entry 41807
سُلِخَ
To be drawn out from the womb.
Said of a child in a figurative passive construction.
- Lane · entry 41807
سَلْخُ الشِّعْرِ
To replace the original words of a poem throughout with synonymous words.
A technical usage concerning extensive verbal substitution in poetry; a lesser degree is distinguished by another term.
- Lane · entry 41807
اِنْسَلَخَ
To become stripped of the skin or to become excoriated.
Used of skin becoming removed or damaged, including through the action of heat.
- Lane · entry 41810
اِنْسَلَخَ
Of a serpent or other creeping thing, to cast off or withdraw from its slough.
The subject is the creature that leaves its old outer covering.
- Lane · entry 41810
اِنْسَلَخَ
To become stripped or divested of one's clothes.
An intransitive or reflexive clothing construction.
- Lane · entry 41810
اِنْسَلَخَ
To emerge from or become wholly separate from something, especially of daylight emerging from night.
The construction emphasizes complete separation or emergence from a surrounding state.
- Lane · entry 41810
اِسْلِخَاخٌ
To lie upon one's side.
A specialized verbal-noun usage.
- Lane · entry 41811
سَلْخٌ
The end of a month, especially its last day.
A temporal noun associated with the completion of a month.
- Lane · entry 41812
سَلَخٌ
The spun thread lying on a spindle.
A nominal usage for thread wound or placed upon the spindle.
- Lane · entry 41814
سَلِيخٌ
A skinned sheep or goat.
One usage applies the term before any part has been eaten; another related usage can denote a fully prepared skinned animal.
- Lane · entry 41816
سَلِيخٌ
Insipid or without taste.
Also occurs in the expression سَلِيخٌ مَلِيخٌ; the attribution is reported with lexical qualification.
- Lane · entry 41816
سَلِيخٌ
A man characterized by vigorous sexual intercourse without causing conception.
A specialized and rare description of a man and the stated sexual result.
- Lane · entry 41816
سَلَاخَةٌ
Insipidity or tastelessness.
Used in the expression فِيهِ سَلَاخَةٌ for something or someone lacking taste.
- Lane · entry 41817
سُلَاخَةٌ
A piece of skin or hide that has been stripped off.
A nominal result of the act of stripping.
- Lane · entry 41818
سُلَاخَةٌ
The urine of a mountain goat.
A specialized zoological or material term.
- Lane · entry 41818
سَلِيخَةٌ
A perfume or odoriferous substance resembling stripped bark and having forked projections.
A specialized name for the described aromatic substance.
- Lane · entry 41819
سَلِيخَةٌ
The dry woody remainder of certain pasture plants after the useful foliage has been stripped away.
Used of remth and ʿarfaj, including thick dried portions of the latter.
- Lane · entry 41819
سَلِيخَةٌ
The unseasoned oil of the fruit of the ban tree.
The term applies before the oil is mixed with musk or other aromatics.
- Lane · entry 41819
سَلِيخَةٌ
Offspring drawn out from the belly of its mother.
A figurative usage based on removal from the womb.
- Lane · entry 41819
سَلَّاخٌ
A skinner or flayer.
An occupational noun for one who skins animals.
- Lane · entry 41821
سَالِخٌ
Skinning or flaying.
A noun denoting the act or practice of removing an animal's hide.
- Lane · entry 41822
سَالِخٌ
Mange or scab that causes an animal to become excoriated.
Attested especially of the condition affecting a camel.
- Lane · entry 41822
سَالِخٌ
A serpent that casts off its slough; specifically, a black serpent associated with this yearly shedding.
The specialized serpent epithet is masculine in the cited expression, with distinct feminine and plural forms reported.
- Lane · entry 41822
سَالِخٌ
A plant that has shed its foliage and then become green again.
A specialized botanical usage describing renewed growth after shedding.
- Lane · entry 41822
أَسْلَخُ
Very red, as though skinned.
An adjective applied to a man in the cited usage.
- Lane · entry 41823
أَسْلَخُ
Affected by mange or scab that excoriates the skin.
The plural form is applied to camels in the cited usage.
- Lane · entry 41823
أَسْلَخُ
Bald at the front of the head.
A less common adjectival usage; another form is reported as more usual.
- Lane · entry 41823
إِسْلِيخٌ
A certain plant.
The plant's identification is uncertain and the form may be a dialectal variant or transcriptional variant of another plant name.
- Lane · entry 41824
مَسْلَخٌ
A place where sheep or goats are skinned.
A place noun for the location of animal skinning.
- Lane · entry 41825
مِسْلَاخٌ
A skin or hide, especially the hide stripped from a sheep or goat.
The noun can also enter a figurative expression describing an outward human appearance concealing an incongruous character.
- Lane · entry 41826
مِسْلَاخٌ
The slough of a serpent.
A nominal term for the outer covering cast off by a snake.
- Lane · entry 41826
مِسْلَاخٌ
A palm tree whose unripe dates fall and become scattered while still green.
A specialized botanical usage.
- Lane · entry 41826
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
Several rare or figurative branches are explicitly marked as assumed metaphorical in the lexical evidence; they are retained as Classical usages and are not presented as additional Quranic senses.
The Quranic Form I headword is normalized from the imperfect occurrence نَسْلَخُ, and the Form VII headword from the inflected occurrence ٱنسَلَخَ.