salaam

intj

1. A respectful ceremonial greeting used mostly by Muslims.

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A low bow as a ceremonial act of deference.

   “[…] the finest dressed one entered first; put her two hands to her forehead, then to her breasts, and with her two hands touched the Colonel’s foot; this is called a grand salam […]”

   “1840, John Wilson, “On the Genius and Character of Burns” in John Wilson and Robert Chambers, The Land of Burns, Glasgow: Blackie & Son, Volume 2, p. lxxv, Finally, Josiah might have made his salaam to the Exciseman just as he was folding up that letter […]”

   “1895, Rabindranath Tagore, letter dated 14 August, 1895 in Glimpses of Bengal, London: Macmillan, 1921, pp. 160-161, My servant was late one morning, and I was greatly annoyed at his delay. He came up and stood before me with his usual salaam, and with a slight catch in his voice explained that his eight-year-old daughter had died last night.”

   “A turbaned Arab placed cigarettes and cups of coffee spiced with saffron before the customers, gave salaam and withdrew.”

   “The old gentleman made several deep salaams.”

verb

1. (intransitive, transitive)To perform a salaam to (someone).

   “[H]e went away salaaming, and protesting his friendship and his master’s goodwill.”

   “He salaamed low to Flory, covering his face with his hand […]”

   “Outside the town, three ragged children salaamed the Governor from the back of a camel.”

   “Beside himself, his possibilities; / salaaming hours of a half-blind morning / while the rainy lepers salaamed back,”

   “The tea-planters’ houses of Ceylon […] were often surrounded by admirable lawns of coarse mountain grass, upon which the planters’ ladies enviably sat, buzzed about by harmless insects and salaamed by passing serfs.”

name

1. A surname.