شَيْلَمٌ
1.
The رُوءَان [now applied to darnel-grass (but see this latter word زوءان)] that is [often found] in wheat; also called
شَالَمٌ (Msb, K) and
شَوْلَمٌ; (K;) of Pers., or foreign, origin; (أَصْلُهُ
أَعْجَمِىٌّ;) and it is said that one of its two extremities is sharp and the other thick: (Msb:) of the dialect of the Sawád: according to IAar, i. q.
زِيوَان [sic.] and سَعِيع: AHn 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 زوءان, 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.]
2.
[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, apparently tropical.]