salep

American  

[sal-ep] / ˈsæl ɛp /

noun

1. a starchy, demulcent drug or foodstuff consisting of the dried tubers of certain orchids.

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salep British  

/ ˈsælɛp /

noun

1. the dried ground starchy tubers of various orchids, used for food and formerly as drugs

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Etymology

Origin of salep

1730–40; < Turkish salep < dialectal Arabic saḥlab, perhaps shortened variant of Arabic khusā al-thaʿlab fox's testicles; cf. saloop

Example Sentences

Around 1,000 to 4,000 orchid plants are used to make a single kilogram of salep, a beloved drink in Turkey that is like a cross between hot chocolate and rice pudding.

From New York Times • Dec. 30, 2020

The same can be said of salep, a fine powder ground from dried orchis tubers used in the Middle East to thicken ice cream.

From Newsweek

The price of salep is about eight guineas per cwt. in the London market.

From The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c. by Simmonds, P. L.

Some snowdrop-roots taken up in winter, and boiled, had the insipid mucilaginous taste of the Orchis, and, if cured in the same manner, would probably make as good salep.

From The Botanic Garden. Part II. Containing the Loves of the Plants. a Poem. With Philosophical Notes. by Darwin, Erasmus

The most important vegetable productions are—cereals, cotton, gum tragacanth, liquorice, olive oil, opium, rice, saffron, salep, tobacco and yellow berries.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 7 "Arundel, Thomas" to "Athens" by Various