حسل

حِسْل (noun)

Etymology: Freytag proposed that since حَسَلَ (ḥasala) and خَسَلَ (ḵasala) are attested to mean “to repel, to propel vehemently, to cast off,” just like سَخَلَ (saḵala), they might represent the same root as سَخْل (saḵl, “offspring of a sheep or goat”). One must also consider سِحْلِيَّة (siḥliyya, “lizard”), which has metathetical forms in dialects and is considered post-classical, being absent from the standard Classical Arabic dictionaries (unlike حِسْل (ḥisl)). The semantic link between سِحْلِيَّة (siḥliyya, “lizard”) and سَحَلَ (saḥala, “to scrape off”) is unclear.
It is possible that both سِحْلِيَّة (siḥliyya, “lizard”) and Middle Armenian խլէզ (xlēz, “lizard”) reflect a colloquial Aramaic substrate related to חלד / ܚܠܕ (ḥlaḏ, “to crawl”). From this root come Aramaic חוּלְדּא / ܚܘܠܕܐ (ḥuldā, “mole”), which was then borrowed into Arabic as Arabic خُلْد (ḵuld, “mole”). In Neo-Armenian խլեզ (xlez), the term also appears as a word for “slug,” allowing it to be linked to Aramaic חְלָזֹונָא / ܚܠܵܙܘܿܢܵܐ (ḥəlāzōnā, “snail, slug”), from which Arabic Arabic حَلَزُون (ḥalazūn, “snail, slug”) is borrowed. Formally, this corresponds to Jewish Literary Aramaic חִילִּיז, חִלִּיז (ḥillīz), glossed as “cyst” or “a person afflicted with an eye disease called חֽלָּזֹון (hillāzōn, literally “slug”).” The exact vocalization is uncertain; it may be identical to the Syriac variant ܚܠܝܙܘܢܐ (ḥəlīzōnā, “snail, slug”). Compare Classical Syriac ܚܰܠܳܕܺܝܬܳܐ (ḥalāḏīṯā, “gangrene”) and ܚܰܠܕܘܽܕܴܐ (ḥaləḏūḏā, “jerboa”) for further examples of this root, as well as Jewish Literary Aramaic חַלְּטָתָה, חַלְּטָתָא (ḥalləṭāṯā, “lizard”) for another variation.