Talk:աշորա

Hairy

1. أَشْعَار (ʔašʕār, “bristles”)? Because rye has longer awns than any other cultivated grass. شَعِير (šaʕīr) is barley, شَعْرَى (šaʕrā, “macchia”). Itself شَعْر (šaʕr), شَعَر (šaʕar), شُعْر (šuʕr) supposedly means “vegetation, plants and trees, the hair of the earth”. The way plant-names derive it could just be misinterpretation from an occurrence in a recipe referring to its hairs.
2. Given that we derive Arabic خَرْطَال (ḵarṭāl, “oats”) from words for wicker-baskets, bags, it may also be օճառ (ōčaṙ, “equipment”) with its altform աճառ (ačaṙ), which would also make sense out of աճառ (ačaṙ, “cartilage; fiber”). Lagarde’s grouping with چاره (čâre, “remedy”) etc. at Lagarde, Paul de (1854) Zur Urgeschichte der Armenier: ein philologischer Versuch (in German), Berlin: W. Hertz, page 19 line 486 suggests the same as this is the second half of the same word that we find at Arabic أَبْزَار (ʔabzār, “spices”), to come full circle.
3. This toolie connection being right we have to search for other grain names being derived from container names, but as for վարսակ (varsak, “oats”) it is, instead of from a relative of քուրձ (kʻurj, “bag”), just Persian گرس (gurs, “hair”) / Old Armenian վարս (vars, “hair”) with + Iranian -ak, which perhaps also identifies վուշ (vuš, “flax”) / Persian وش (vaš, “boll of flax”) / Arabic وَرَس (waras, “Flemingia macrophylla, especially its glands”). And the shapes of جَاوَرْس (jāwars, “proso millet; sorghum”) compounds a known word equalling جو (jaw, “barley”) to it, also found in جودر (jawdar, “rye”) to turn full circle again. The Iranians added that suffix to any kind of crop of course for endearing reasons, the naiter and nicer the more likely a plant earns it, there is Persian ماشک (mâšak, “vetch”) and زردک (zardak, “carrot”) like there is Serbo-Croatian grášak (“peas”) and masláčak (“dandelion”).
4. If Northern Kurdish açar (“rye”) can be an Armenian borrowing I know not, it depends on the occurrences of the words. If it isn’t then it probably supports the toolie derivation. @Vahagn Petrosyan. Fay Freak (talk) 15:53, 7 June 2021 (UTC)

@Fay Freak: I like the derivation from the Semitic hair word. The ending -այ (-ay) likewise points to Semitic. Ačaṙyan had recognized the relation with this obscure Aramaic word, which I assume is from the same family. Could you please add the relevant comparanda to the entry? --Vahag (talk) 11:20, 8 June 2021 (UTC)