The word to the left is Dutch and means 'slaughterhouse'; its root is slacht- [slaxt-] 'slaughter'. To the right is the German sibling of that word. In both, the t is secondary, i.e. not part of the original root. In the middle is the Levantine/ Arabic equivalent: مَسْلَخ [maslax] - literally 'the place (ma-) of slaughtering (slax)'. While the common Germanic root of the word is slah-, the Semitic one is slaḥ-, whence Levantine سلاح slāḥ/ Arabic silāḥ 'weapon'. Another cognate pair in Germanic and Semitic deserves attention: German schlagen and Levantine/ Gulf Arabic يِِـ)شْلَعْ) [(yi)šlac] both mean 'strike, knock', the latter being cognate with Arabic سِلعَة [silca-] 'commodity' - from a verb originally meaning 'strike, cut' (cf. Russian рубль [rubl'] 'rouble', from рубить [rubit'] 'strike, knock'). Finally, Levantine يِـ)شْلَخ) [(yi)šlax] 'strike, knock' presents a striking similarity with German schlachten [šlax-t-en], cognate with Dutch slachten [slax-t-en], itself a striking mirror of Arabic [(ya)slax] 'slaughter', in turn cognate with Levantine – read Arabised Syriac – يِـ)شْلَح) [(yi)šlaḥ] 'shed; undress'.
