STUDIES IN ARMENIAN ETYMOLOGY - Get a Free Blog

261) who considers the etymology uncertain by putting the whole entry between
square brackets.
If the basic meaning of agi was indeed `edge' (in the semantic fields of animal,
partly also, perhaps, human anatomy, as well as dressing; see above, in the
dialectological section), I would connect the word to Arm. haw3 `beginning' <
perhaps *`edge' (q.v.) which may be derived from *p(e)h2u�-. haw and (h)agi
correspond to each other as kov and kogi (see s.v.v). The loss of the initial h- in agi
is perhaps due to the unstressed position: *ph2u�-ii�V- > Arm. *(h)agi�i�V- > agi. In
eastern dialects the h-, if not from y-, may have been preserved because here the
initial syllable is accented as a result of accent retraction.
As I tried to demonstrate in the dialectological section, a by-form *y-agi can be
restored on the base of S�atax and Van (perhaps also the others with an initial h-, if
this goes back to Arm. *y-). This is parallel to haw next to which there is a rarely
attested prefixed form, that is yaw (q.v.).
azbn, azbn azbn azbn -bin, -bamb `weft, web, warp'.
First attested thrice (not twice, as in Astuacaturean 1895: 11b and Greppin 1983:
262) in Judges 16.13-14 (in the story of Samson and Delilah) rendering Gr. �������
`warp/Kettenfaden': Et`e� ankc`es zeo�t`anesin gisaks glxoy imoy ənd azbin . E�ar�
zeo�t`anesin gisaks glxoy nora handerj azbambn . Korzeac` zc`ic`sn handerj
ostayniwn ew azbambn yormoy anti.
Next: asbn (Philo); aspn (Vark` ew vkayabanut`iwnk`); ISg azbamb (Nerse�s
Lambronac`i, 12th cent.; see NHB 1: 6b); APl azbuns (George of Pisidia).
The "pure" root *azb (without -n) is found in two derivatives: azb-a-xumb `crowd,
rabble' (P`awstos Buzand 4.5: 1883=1984: 71 L-11 ) and azboc` `weaver's comb' (John
Chrysostom). The rendering of the former as `a grouping of the warp or weft' given
by Greppin (1983: 262) is literal rather than textual. I do not understand why Bailey
(1983: 2) translates the compound as `very close'. The passage from P`awstos reads
as follows: t`r�‰`el anc`anel i veray azbaxumb zo�rut`eanc`s "they fly over dense
forces" (transl. Garso�an 1989: 119-120). As for the renderings `weaver's reed to
separate threads' (my underlining) and `stick' given by Bailey for azbn and azboc`,
respectively, one feels a tendency to stress their semantic conformity with Khot. ysba
< *(a)zba�- `reed'; see the etymological section.
The interpretation of azbaxumb should be reconsidered. The first component can
in fact be equated to *asp- `to arm', a quasi-word based on a re-analysis of aspaze�n
and a contamination with aspar `shield' and (a)sparapet `commander-in-chief'. A
secondary (dialectal?) voicing of sibilants and affricates is not uncommon in
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