Middle Persian edit

Alternative forms edit

  • [Manichaean needed] (zhr /⁠zahr⁠/)Manichaean

Etymology edit

From Proto-Iranian *ǰaθráH, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰen-. Cognate with Central Kurdish ژەھر (jehir), Lurish ژٱر (žar) and Old Armenian ժահր (žahr), an Iranian borrowing.

Noun edit

zʾhl (zahr)

  1. poison

Descendants edit

  • Persian: زهر (zahr) (see there for further descendants)
  • Classical Syriac: ܙܗܪܐ (zahrāʾ)

Further reading edit

  • Ačaṙean, Hračʿeay (1973), “ժահր”, in Hayerēn armatakan baṙaran [Armenian Etymological Dictionary] (in Armenian), volume II, 2nd edition, a reprint of the original 1926–1935 seven-volume edition, Yerevan: University Press, page 221
  • Cabolov, R. L. (2010) Etimologičeskij slovarʹ kurdskovo jazyka [Etymological Dictionary of the Kurdish Language] (in Russian), volume II, Moscow: Russian Academy Press Vostochnaya Literatura, page 533
  • Hübschmann, Heinrich (1897) Armenische Grammatik. 1. Theil: Armenische Etymologie (in German), Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, page 156
  • MacKenzie, D. N. (1971) A concise Pahlavi dictionary, London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press, page 97