Bibliotheca Polyglotta

Fraenkel1886 suggested Lat sacer ‘falcon, harrier’ as the etymon of Ar ṣaqr; but it is more likely that the word is of Pers origin (related to the idea of Pers šekār ‘hunting’). Perhaps also oTu suŋkur should be considered as a possible source.

hist

▪ …

cogn

See DISC below.

disc

▪ Fraenkel1886 rightly states that, given a conspicuous lack of cognates in other Sem languages, ṣaqr with all likelihood is a foreign word. (For genuine Sem bird names, cf., e.g., ↗nasr, ↗ġurāb, ↗ǧawzal).
▪ Calice1936#788 mentions Eg zkr ‘Sokar(is)’, the name of a falcon-shaped god of the dead in Memphis, often written with a falcon determinative, as a possible parallel (if not origin) of Ar ṣaqr, not without adding, however, that this juxtaposition is “lautlich nicht einwandfrei” (phonologically problematic, not sound). – For both phonological and geographical reasons, this etymology is indeed rather weak.
▪ Fraenkel1886 thinks ṣaqr is the oldest example of Ar borrowing of bird names from outside Sem. He suggests (late) Lat sacer ‘falcon, harrier’ as the etymon. According to the author, the var. ^†zaqr, mentioned by Ibn Durayd, certainly is the more original form (still preserving the voicedness of initial Lat {s}), which then developed into ṣaqr. See however following paragraph. – The meaning ‘falcon’ of the Lat word is secondary, transferred to the bird on account of its ‘holiness’. Lat here shows the same transfer (sacer ‘holy’, then also ‘the sacred one’), and for the same reason, as Grk hiérax ‘falcon, hawk’, which is from hierós ‘holy’.
▪ Given the fact that most of the Ar terminology of falconry (^†bayzaraẗ) is clearly borrowed from Pers (cf. Ar ↗bāz, ↗bāšaq, ↗zurayq, ↗šāhīn), a Pers origin of ṣaqr, too, is more probable than a Lat one. Palmer1882 suggests a Pers šakrah [sic!] ‘falcon’ as the etymon, which I was unable to find in the dictionaries at hand; but Steingass1884 has, e.g., Pers šikara ‘rapacious birds trained to hunt’ – S.G. If this etymology is correct, then Ar ṣaqr ‘falcon’ is related to the idea of ‘prey, game; chase, hunting; plunder, booty [etc.]’ of Pers šikār.¹
▪ Perhaps, however, also Tu sungur ‘falcon, hawk’ (oTu suŋkur² ) should be considered as a possible source.

1. Palmer goes a step farther and connects his Pers šakrah ‘falcon’ with Skr šakra ‘strong, powerful, mighty (applied to various gods, but esp. to Indra’), which, he says, is the origin also of Lat sacer ‘sacred’; cf. however etymonline EtymOnline where Lat sacer < oLat saceres is said to be based on an IndEuro root *sak- ‘to sanctify’. 2. Kāşġarī, Dīvān-i Luġati't-Türk, 1073; Codex Cumanicus, 1303. - Cf. Mong siŋkur /şoŋkur, Mançu songkon. NişanyanSözlük 13Apr2014.

west

▪ Lokotsch1927#1799: Ar ṣaqr ‘falcon (used in hawking), Falco sacer’ gave mLat sacer ‘id.’, mGrk sákre, Cat Span Port sacre, Fr sacre, It sacro, sagro, Port çafaro ‘falcon, hawk’; Ge Sacker(-falk), Engl saker, sacre (< mFr sacre); Ru sokol, Ukr Pol sokoł, Cz sokol, Serb soko, Bulg sokol ‘falcon’. According to Bertau2014¹ , folk-etymology identified m/lLat sacer ‘falcon’ with Lat sacer ‘holy sacred’ (perh. in analogy to Grk híerax ‘falcon, hawk’ < hierós ‘holy, sacred’).

1. Peter Bertau, Die Bedeutung historischer Vogelnamen, I: Nichtsingvögel, Heidelberg: Springer Spektrum, 2014, following Viktor Wember, Die Namen der Vögel Europas: Bedeutung der deutschen und wissenschaftlichen Namen, Aula-Verlag, 2nd ed. 2007.

deriv

► al-ṣuqūr, n.pl., the hawks (pol.)

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