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Conjecture and Refutation

This document discusses the linguistic and historical analysis of two Old Persian words, "hār" and "zahar", found in the Persian epic poem Shahnameh. The author had previously noted these words in a writing two years ago. He sent this note to some Iranian linguists for their feedback. One expert replied that the author's conjectures about the meaning and origins of the words seemed valid, but further etymological research into their roots had not been done by other linguists. The author concludes that fully understanding words in ancient texts requires considering both linguistic and historical perspectives.

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Mohsen_a57
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56 views8 pages

Conjecture and Refutation

This document discusses the linguistic and historical analysis of two Old Persian words, "hār" and "zahar", found in the Persian epic poem Shahnameh. The author had previously noted these words in a writing two years ago. He sent this note to some Iranian linguists for their feedback. One expert replied that the author's conjectures about the meaning and origins of the words seemed valid, but further etymological research into their roots had not been done by other linguists. The author concludes that fully understanding words in ancient texts requires considering both linguistic and historical perspectives.

Uploaded by

Mohsen_a57
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Thank you very much for sending me your article concerning the meaning and etymology of
zahr and hr. I find your argument logical and convincing. As Iranian words, they need
indeed an explanation. It is surprising that no one among the philologists has provided, as far
as I know, an explanation or etymology.
Your connecting the two words with kesara- in Sanskrit and its ultimate derivation from
PIE *kaisaro- or with *bhar- and *bhrsti- also appear cogent to me. However, one
needs to find similar phonetic changes in other instances in order to make sure that this is not
a single case.

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= uz- + hra uz- .
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About the etymology of zahr


The proposition that zahr may be composed of prefix uz- "out" and *hr "hair" does not
seem plausible to me, since now I think that Pers. zahr may not be related to E. hair, Ger.
Haar. Moreover, this new suggestion does not establish the lacking link between Pers. and
E./Ger.
terms.
For more information about prefix os-, uz- click here2, under the entry ex-.
I do not pretend that I have found the final response, I only present another track that seems
promising.
Persian

zahr

may

be

related

to

the

following

Skt.

term:

ikhar"erection of the hair of the body; the armpit," original meaning "pointed, spiked, crested; a
point, peak (of a mountain), top or summit (of a tree), edge or point (of a sword), end." Also,
in Hindu temples of Vishnu, "the tower above the sanctum or shrine."
This word comes from kh- "top, point, summit; a sharp end, point, spike; a tuft or lock of
hair on the crown of the head, a crest, topknot, plume; a peacock's crest or comb; a pointed
flame," probably from i- "to sharpen" + hara- "bearing, wearing, taking, conveying,
bringing"
from
hr"to
bear,
take,
bring,
present."
In some Indo-Aryan dialects sihar "(hair) to stand on end," siur "cock's comb."

See, ex- in http://aramis.obspm.fr/~heydari/dictionary/Intro.html

Note that the first element kh- occurs in Pers. as six () "a sharp end, spike, roasting
spit," either as a loanword [Dehxod] or as an independent cognate, since languages of the
same
family
have
very
similar
terms.
As noted above, the second element hara- "bearing, wearing, taking, conveying, bringing" has
no relation with "hair," more especially since it turns out that hair/Haar do not have any
known cognates in Skt. Therefore, a link between ikhar- and Hair/Haar seems unlikely.
) might( I conculsion, if the comparison between zahr and Skt. kh- is justified, zahr
) may be a contraction of zahr.(  , and hr    
originally mean

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