Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ Jeffery1938: 261: »The word […] was ‎early recognized as borrowed from Persia,¹ but it is certain that it did ‎not come directly from Iranian into Ar.² – We find in Phlv murvārīt,³ a ‘pearl’ used, e.g. in the Gosht-i Fryānō, ii, 13, in describing the crowns presented to the daughters of Spitama after death. From ‎mPers the word was borrowed widely, e.g. Grk margarítēs ⁴ ; Aram mrgnytā; Syr mrgnytā, ‎and from some Aram form⁵ it came into Ar. It would have come at an early date ‎for it is used in the old poetry and was doubtless well known in the pre-Islamic period«.
▪ No ‎connection whatsoever with (hypothetical) *√RǦN, nor with the other items listed under ↗√MRǦ.

1. al-Ǧawālīqī, Muʕarrab, 144; as-Suyūṭī, Itq, 324 ‎‎; Muḥīṭ, sub voc., and see Sachau’s note to the Muʕarrab, p. 65. 2. In spite of Addai Sher, 144, and his attempted ‎derivation from mar + ǧān. 3. West, Glossary, 213; Šāyast, Glossary, 163; cf. Horn, Grundriss, 218, n. 4. Also margarís, ‑ídos, from ‎which comes the Arm margaris and the European forms. 5. Fraenkel, Fremdw, 59. The Mand mʔrgʔnyʔtʔ would also seem ‎to be from the same source, vide Nöldeke, Mundart, 53; Mingana, Syriac Influence, 90; ‎Vollers, ZDMG, 1, 611; li, 303.

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► marǧānī coralline, coral, coralli‑ (in compounds), corallike, coral-red: nsb-adj. | pl. marǧāniyyāt coral polyps, anthozoans (zool.); ǧazīraẗ m.iyyaẗ atoll; šiʕāb m.iyyaẗ coral reefs

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