մագիլ

From Old Armenian մագիլ (magil).

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• (Eastern Armenian, standard) IPA^(key): [mɑˈɡil]

մագիլ • (magil)

1. claw; talon

• մակիլ (makil)
• մագալ (magal)

Uncertain.

According to Ačaṙyan, perhaps a “Caucasian” borrowing; he compares Georgian მახვილი (maxvili, “pointed, sharp”), Udi мух (muχ, “nail; claw”) and several Avar forms. J̌ahukyan adds also Avar (Southern dialect) малгь (malh), Bagvalal милгьв (milhʷ, “nail; claw”) and considers the Armenian specifically a Northeast Caucasian borrowing. Compare also literary Avar малъ (mał, “nail; claw”). Nikolayev and Starostin reconstruct Proto-North Caucasian *mɦǟƛă, *mɦǟƛǝ̆ (“finger-nail, toe-nail”) for these.

Alternatively, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₃nogʰ- (“nail”) via pre-Armenian *h₃nogʷʰ-ōl-eh₂, with the n → m change possibly being the result of assimilatory influence of a labiovelar in the following syllable from Proto-Armenian or the influence of մատն (matn, “finger”); compare also Tocharian A maku, Tocharian B mekwa (“nails”). Compare however եղունգն (ełungn).

մագիլ • (magil)

1. claw, talon

   երկաթի մագիլք ― erkatʿi magilkʿ ― torturing hooks

   ըմբռնել մագլօք ― əmbṙnel maglōkʿ ― to seize with the claws or talons, to clutch, to grapple, to grasp, to hook

• Armenian: մագիլ (magil)
• Middle Armenian: մաքիլ (makʿil)

• Petrosean, H. Matatʿeay V. (1879), “մագիլ”, in Nor Baṙagirkʿ Hay-Angliarēn [New Dictionary Armenian–English], Venice: S. Lazarus Armenian Academy
• Awetikʿean, G.; Siwrmēlean, X.; Awgerean, M. (1836–1837), “մագիլ”, in Nor baṙgirkʿ haykazean lezui [New Dictionary of the Armenian Language] (in Old Armenian), Venice: S. Lazarus Armenian Academy
• Ačaṙean, Hračʿeay (1971–1979), “մագիլ”, in Hayerēn armatakan baṙaran [Dictionary of Armenian Root Words] (in Armenian), 2nd edition, reprint of the original 1926–1935 seven-volume edition, Yerevan: University Press
• J̌ahukyan, Geworg (2010), “մագիլ”, in Vahan Sargsyan, editor, Hayeren stugabanakan baṙaran [Armenian Etymological Dictionary] (in Armenian), Yerevan: Asoghik
• J̌ahukyan, Geworg (1987) Hayocʿ lezvi patmutʿyun; naxagrayin žamanakašrǰan [History of the Armenian language: The Pre-Literary Period] (in Armenian), Yerevan: Academy Press, page 609
• Martirosyan, Hrach (2010) Etymological Dictionary of the Armenian Inherited Lexicon (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 8), Leiden, Boston: Brill, page 255
• Nikolayev, S. L.; Starostin, S. A. (1994), “*mɦǟƛă (~-ǝ̆)”, in A North Caucasian Etymological Dictionary, Moscow: Asterisk Publishers