Bibliotheca Polyglotta

Etymology obscure. Some relate the name of the planet to an oPers *tīra-dāta ‘Mercury’, while ClassAr dictionaries usually derive it from ↗ṭarada ‘to chase’, which however is little likely. Given that the word does not seem to have cognates in Sem or AfrAs, should one consider a derivation from Grk hydrárgyros ‘mercury (quicksilver)’, the metal associated with the planet since early Antiquity? (Prepared from cinnabar, the silver-white element was one of the seven metals, bodies terrestrial, known to the ancients, which were coupled in astrology and alchemy with the seven known heavenly bodies.)

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▪ In Class times, ʕuṭārid also served as a personal name. Some sources say that it should be diptote (ʕuṭāridᵘ) only when used in this function; the planet name however should be triptote (ʕuṭāridᵘⁿ).
▪ According to Asbaghi1988, ʕuṭārid is borrowed from oPers *tīra-dāta ‘Mercury’ (no further explanation supplied). Nourai gives the basic meaning of the first component of this Pers word, tīr, as ‘pointed thing’, hence also ‘sharp; arrow’ (from oPers/Av tiǧra ‘sharp, pointed’, taěža, taěǧa ‘sharp’). Interestingly, this value is among the basic meanings that also the obsol. adj. Ar ^†ʕaṭarrad can take in ClassAr: ‘sharpened (spear-head)’. However, the semantic relation between ‘Mercury’ and ‘sharp, pointed’—if there was any—is not explained. In addition to the value ‘sharp, pointed’ of ^†ʕaṭarrad, Lane lists also ‘high (mountain), tall (man, camel), long (day; limit, term, reach, goal; heat, single run to a goal or limit; road); generous, noble, or liberal (man); quick (pace, rate of going)’. While all of these but the last seem to denote some kind of extension or copiousness, the last one is difficult to relate to this extension or the *extremity of ‘sharp, pointed’. Rather, the value ‘quick (pace, rate of going)’ could have s.th. to do with Mercury, the ‘quick, volatile’ planet. From this one may have to infer that ^†ʕaṭarrad not only has one, but two basic meanings (and perhaps also etymologies): 1 (from Pers tīr ‘pointed thing’) *‘extreme, extended (having some quality in excess)’, and 2 (akin to ʕuṭārid) ‘quick (pace, rate of going)’.
▪ In contrast, ^†ʕuṭrūd ‘apparatus prepared for the casualties of fortune’ (↗ʕṬRD_2) seems difficult to relate to both, ‘Mercury / quick’ and ‘high, tall, long, generous’—or could the ‘volatility’ of fortune be a link?
▪ According to ClassAr dictionaries, ^†ʕaṭarrad is a variant of ^†ʕaṭawwad, root ʕṬD,¹ while the planet name, ʕuṭārid, is said by some to derive from ↗ṭarada ‘to drive, chase’ (ṬRD), interpreting Mercury as ‘the chasing and pursued one’ (al-ṭārid wa’l-muṭarrad).
▪ Strangely enough, the Ar name of the planet, which was known already to the Sumerians² and Ancient Egyptians, does not have any cognates in Sem. The fact that, to the Ancient Egyptians, it was one of the many appearances of the gods Seth and Thot (the latter typically represented as a scribe), may account for the fact that Ar ʕuṭārid too is often called the ‘star of the scribes’, but not for the etymology of the name itself.
▪ Could it be that the Ar name was taken from Grk? In Ancient Greece, Mercury was believed to be the planet of the God and messenger Hermes (= Lat Mercurius), hence it was called ho toû Hermoû astḗr ‘the star of Hermes’. The GGA provides evidence (in [Ps.-] Plutarchus, Placita Philosophorum) to the fact that the Arabs knew of this association (Hermes is translated as kawkab ʕuṭārid there). Etymologically, however, it is not very likely that ʕuṭārid should have developed from ho toû Hermoû astḗr , even if we assume an (unlikely) development from only the last elements of this name, …oû astḗr. This seems too far-fetched.
▪ Another possibility, however, may be worth considering: a derivation of the Ar planet name from Grk hydrárgyr-os ‘(the metal) mercury’, lit. ‘water-silver’ (from hydr-, the root of hýdōr ‘water’, and árgyr-os ‘silver’). Should it be possible some day to prove that ʕuṭārid is from < hydrárgyros, then the Ar would be taken from the name of the metal with which the planet was associated since early times.³ We would then have to assume that the meaning of the loaned word was transferred from the name of the metal associated with the planet to the planet itself.

1. Cf. Hava1899: ʕaṭad (?), n., hardship, severity; ʕaṭawwad, adj., hard, distant (journey); high (mountain); long (day); liberal (man). 2. Sum LU.BAT.GÙ.UD – EI¹ (W. Hartner). 3. The others were Sun/gold, Moon/silver, Mars/iron, Saturn/lead, Jupiter/tin, Venus/copper – EtymOnline.com .

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▪ According to Lokotsch1927#2143, Ar ʕuṭārid ‘mercury’ (> Tu utarıd) gave the words for the metal in some Slav langs: Ru rtut’, Ukr ortut’, rtut’, Pol rtęć, trtęć, Cz rtut ‘id.’. Vasmer[1958]1987 however thinks that this derivation is “phonologically impossible”. Instead, he sees the Slav terms belonging to the notion of ‘to turn over, roll, writhe’, also ‘to fall off, drop off, part, split up, separate’, cf. Germ *wreit-a- ‘to tear (apart), scratch’ (> oEng wrītan ‘to score, outline, draw the figure of’, later ‘to set down in writing, to write’)

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