▪ The two values are essentially one, [v2] being a modern use of [v1]. ▪ [v1] : From Pers
kāh-robā ‘amber’, lit. *‘stealing straw, robber of straw’ (Pers
kāh ‘straw’ +
rubā, prs-stem of
rubādan ‘to rob, steal, take away’ – Lokotsch1927), so called »because amber, when it is rubbed, attracts light objects, such as feathers or little blades of straw« (al-Bīrūnī, q. in J. Schönfeld, “Amber”,
EI³).
▪ [v2] : In the same way as Engl
electricity goes back to the Grk word for ‘amber’,
ḗlektron, the modPers and Ar words are based on the old Pers words for the same material, due to its electromagnetic features. According to Braune1933,
1
the first Ar attestation in this sense is from the 1830s, coined by R.R. al-Ṭahṭāwī.
▪ …