lalla

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

lalla (plural lallas)

1. (historical) In Persia, a kind of domestic tutor.
2. (historical) In Persia, a male nurse.
3. (India, historical) A native clerk who writes the vernacular.
4. (India, historical) A respectable merchant.
   • 1841, Society in India, ii. 176:

     Where there are no tigers, the Lalla (scribe) becomes a shikaree.

   • 1935, Mulk Raj Anand, Untouchable:

     There were Hindu lallas from the piece-goods market of Bulandshahr, smartly dressed in silks; there were Kashmiri Muhammadans from the local carpet factories, immaculately clad in white cotton; […]

• Henry Yule, Arthur Burnell (1903) Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases

-lálla

1. to look for
2. to lay a trap for

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

lalla (present lallar, preterite lallade, supine lallat, imperative lalla)

1. to sing without words, to la-la

   lalla med i en melodi

   la-la along to a melody

2. (colloquial, often with runt (“around”)) to not be (appropriately) serious

   Sluta lalla runt på plan!

   Get serious on the field!

   Han lallade in en timme för sent

   He wandered ("la-la'd") in an hour late

   Två vilsna turister lallade in på plan

   Two lost tourists ambled ("la-la'd") onto the playing field

3. to talk nonsense, to be dopey

• lallare

• tralla

• lalla in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• lalla in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• lalla in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)
• Slangopedia

• řalla
• řaǧa

Compare Moroccan Arabic لالة (lady, “lālla”). (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

lalla f (Tifinagh spelling ⵍⴰⵍⵍⴰ, usually uncountable)

1. lady, madam (used as a form of address)
2. mother-in-law
3. aunt (wife of one's paternal uncle)