Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ Perh. from Pers zargūn ‘gold-coloured’, composed of Pers zar ‘gold’ (Av zar ‘gold’) + gūn ‘colour’ (EtymOnline , DRS #ZRQN), akin to Aram zarag, zargūn ‘peony, peony-coloured’, Syr zrag ‘to glisten, be red’ (with wine, said of the eyes), zārgâ ‘wine colour (a colour betw. red and yellow), topaz, amethyst’ (PayneSmith1903).¹

1. According to Nişanyan (22Dec2014, #zirkon), quoted also in Rolland2014a, Ar zarqūn is from Pers āẕargūn (with initial ā‑) ‘flame-coloured’, composed of Pers āẕar ‘fire’ + gūn ‘colour’.

▪ …

▪ (not real cognates, but akin to) Aram zarag, zargūn ‘peony, peony-coloured’ (Nişanyan_22Dec2014), Syr zrag ‘to glisten, be red’ (with wine, said of the eyes), zārgâ ‘wine colour (a colour betw. red and yellow), topaz, amethyst’ (PayneSmith1903).

▪ DRS 8 (1999)#ZRQN-1 labels zarqūn ‘céruse rouge, minium’ (lead cerussite, red lead) a specifically HispAr item. According to the Dictionnaire historique de la langue française the word is a »réemprunt à l’Ar zarkūn lui-même pris au Lat hyacinthus et qui avait donné jargon.«
▪ Aram from Ar or Pers?
▪ In Syr zrag ‘to glisten, be red’ there is (conspicuous?) partial overlapping with ‘iridescent, shimmering, glittering’, the original meaning of Ar ʔazraqᵘ (now mostly ‘blue’).

▪ Engl zircon, 1794, circon, also jargon, new name given in chemistry to jacinth, from Fr zircone and Ge Zirkon, from Ar zarqūn ‘cinnabar, bright red’, from Pers zargun ‘gold-colored’, from Av zari- ‘gold-colored’, from zar ‘gold’. – zirconium, metallic chemical element, 1808, coined in modLat by German chemist and mineralogist M. H. Klaproth (1743-1817) in 1789; so called because it was found in zircon – EtymOnline
▪ Lokotsch1927#141: Ar zarkūn [sic!] > Span azarcón ‘red lead’, Port zarcão, azarcão.
▪ Rolland2014a: Perhaps this is the etymon also of It giargone ‘variety of diamant’, whence Fr jargon. Cf., however, CNRTL #jargon²: »1723 jargons ‘petits cristaux vendus par les droguistes pour de vrais hyacinthes’; 1752 ‘sorte de diamant jaune’, empr. à l’It giargone ‘variété de diamant’ attesté dep. C14 (d’apr. DEI), de même orig. que oFr jacunce, jargunce ‘pierre précieuse’, cf. jacinthe et hyacinthe.« If Fr jargon is not from Ar zarqūn but from Lat hyacinthus ‘plante à bulbe, glaïeul; sorte d’améthyste’, Grk hyákinthos, from Syr yaquntā, in itself a loan from Grk hyákinthos, then one will rather have to compare Ar ↗yāqūt.
▪ Tu zirkon, 1892 (Tıngır & Sinapian, Iṣṭılāḥāt Luġāti), from Fr zircon ‘red gem’, from Ge Zirkon (1789 Martin Heinrich Klaproth, Ge chemist), from Ar zarqūn ‘1 brilliant red, 2 red gem’ – Nişanyan (22Dec2014, #zirkon).

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