How the mighty have fallen

[muckefuck]

Fo' my lingo peeps, cuz y'all be askin' "Yo, Da, where da love at?"

Crazy Etymology of the Day (courtesy of the DRAE):

tahúr (Del ár. takfūr, y este del armenio tagevor, título de los reyes de esta nación posteriormente con valor negativo por sus difíciles relaciones con los cruzados).

(Rough translation: "From Arabic takfūr, and this from Armenian tagevor, title of the kings of this nation subsequently with negative value due to its difficult relations with the Crusaders.")

Small correction: The original Armenian word is actually թագաւոր, which would be more accurately transcribed t'agawor. The first element is cognate with Persian tāj "crown" (and, more distantly, with English thatch) while the second corresponds to English bear and Greek phoros, i.e. "crown-bearing".

I'm not completely sold on this etymology--the RAE is less than 100% trustworthy on etymologies involving non-Indo-European languages--but if it's accurate, then here you have a pejoration from "king" to "gambler" in the space of a few centuries.

Update: I had a moment this morning to dip into Corominas. Although he admits the t'agawor etymology as a possibility (and gives exactly the same Arabic transcription--sorry, wwidsith), he prefers t'ap'ur [թափուր] "vacant; free, loose" as the Armenian source word. He also considers some proposed Arabic sources and dispenses with all but ṭaffār [طفار] "pimp; sodomite", which he considers remotely plausible.

Comments

[wwidsith.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I am confused about this...why is there an accent on the U? It doesn't need one, and in fact it's given as just tahur in my Spanish dictionary.

Also, do you know what the RAE's notoriously dodgy transcription is supposed to represent in Arabic? Presumably تكفور, but I can't find this anywhere...?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

The spelling with <ú> comes directly from the DRAE. Like you, I would've thought the tilde unnecessary. I don't think my UoC Spanish-English dictionary has it either.

I didn't have time before I posted last night, but today I'll consult Corominas to see what light he can shine on this.