marǧān مَرْجان , var. murǧān
metaID 810 • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021
√MRǦN
englsmall pearls; corals | samak m. goldfish – WehrCowan1979.
concA loan-word that came into Ar via Syr MRGNYtā from mPers murvārīt ‘pearl’.
disc▪ 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 form
5
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.
deriv► 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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