Salep
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A starch or jelly made out of plants in the Orchidaceae family, such as early-purple orchids (Orchis mascula). countable, uncountable
"Where finally the draining of marſhy grounds can not be effected at a reſponſible expence, ſome plants may perhaps be cultivated with profit to the cultivator; as in ſome ſituations the feſtica fluitans, floating feſcue, callitriche, ſtar-graſs; or in others the orchis for the purpoſe of making ſaloop by drying the peeled roots in an oven."
- 2 Alternative form of saloop (“aromatic drink originally made with salep”). alt-of, alternative, countable, uncountable
Example
More examples"Where finally the draining of marſhy grounds can not be effected at a reſponſible expence, ſome plants may perhaps be cultivated with profit to the cultivator; as in ſome ſituations the feſtica fluitans, floating feſcue, callitriche, ſtar-graſs; or in others the orchis for the purpoſe of making ſaloop by drying the peeled roots in an oven."
Etymology
Borrowed from French salep, from Turkish salep, from Arabic سَحْلَب (saḥlab, “type of orchid”). According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the Arabic word is said to be a contraction of خُصَى الثَعْلَب (ḵuṣā aṯ-ṯaʕlab, “fox testicles”) (الثَعْلَب (aṯ-ṯaʕlab, “fox”) + خُصًى (ḵuṣan, “testicles”)), referring to the testicle-like root tubers.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.