Reconstruction:Old Persian/nauciš
Old Persian
Etymology
Of uncertain origin.
In view of isolated distribution and no obvious correspondences in any other branch of Indo-European, Gamkrelidze / Ivanov consider the word borrowed from Proto-Kartvelian *naʒw- (“spruce”). On the other hand, according to Ačaṙean the Kartvelian forms themselves are borrowed from Iranian.
Gamkrelidze / Ivanov give an alternative native etymology from Proto-Indo-European *néh₂us (“ship”), remarking that in case the direction of borrowing is the reverse, contacts between Iranian and Kartvelian languages would have to be posited as early as the period of Proto-Kartvelian unity, no later than the first half of the second millennium B.C.
Compare also Persian ناژو (nâžu, “pine”), ناجو (nâju, “pine”), ناژون (nâžun, “juniper”), Ossetian нӕзы́ (næzý) / нази (nazi, “pine”), Chechen наж (naž, “oak”), Ingush наж (naž, “oak”) which may be related.
Derived terms
- 𐎴𐎢𐎨𐎡𐎴 (naučaina, “of cedar”, adjective)
Descendants
References
- Abajev, V. I. (1973) Историко-этимологический словарь осетинского языка [Historical-Etymological Dictionary of the Ossetian Language] (in Russian), volume II, Moscow and Leningrad: Academy Press, pages 177–178
- Ačaṙean, Hračʻeay (1977) “նոճ”, in Hayerēn armatakan baṙaran [Armenian Etymological Dictionary] (in Armenian), 2nd edition, a reprint of the original 1926–1935 seven-volume edition, volume III, Yerevan: University Press, page 464a
- Brandenstein, Wilhelm, Mayrhofer, Manfred (1964) Handbuch des Altpersischen (in German), Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, page 134
- Gamkrelidze, Th. V., Ivanov, V. V. (1995) Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans. A Reconstruction and Historical Analysis of a Proto-Language and Proto-Culture. Part I: The Text (Trends in linguistics. Studies and monographs; 80), Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pages 545—546
- Olsen, Birgit Anette (1999) The noun in Biblical Armenian: origin and word-formation: with special emphasis on the Indo-European heritage (Trends in linguistics. Studies and monographs; 119), Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter, page 898
- Edelʹman, D. I. (2015) Etimologičeskij slovarʹ iranskix jazykov [Etymological Dictionary of Iranian Languages] (in Russian), volume V, Moscow: Vostochnaya Literatura, pages 507–508
References
- Tavernier, Jan (2007) chapter 460, in Iranica in the Achaemenid Period (ca. 550–330 B.C.): Lexicon of Old Iranian Proper Names and Loanwords, Attested in Non-Iranian Texts, Peeters Publishers, →ISBN