κερασός

• κέρᾰσος (kérasos)

A loanword of uncertain origin, considering the intervocalic -σ- either Anatolian or Pre-Greek.

Comparison with Akkadian 𒅗𒅈𒋗 (/karšu/, “a plant, likely a leek”) is rejected by Rosół and Blažek.

Blažek argues that the ultimate source of the word may well be Semitic, e. g. Akkadian 𒄑𒈢𒆳𒊏 (/kamiššaru, kamaššaru, kameššaru/, “pear-tree”) or Classical Syriac ܟܘܡܬܪܐ‎ (kummaṯrā, “pear”), compare the Aramaic borrowing Arabic كُمَّثْرَى‎ (kummaṯrā, “pear”), where it has to be known that Prunus and Pyrus species can be denoted by the same word, for example إِجَّاص‎ (ʔijjāṣ, “pear; plum”) and Old Armenian տանձ (tanj, “pear”) with Classical Syriac ܬܰܢ̈ܓܳܝܳܬܳܐ‎ f pl (tangāyāṯā, “mahaleb cherry”). He argues that assimilation *-mš- > *-š- is attested in several NW Semitic languages of the 2nd millennium BC, and hypothesizes that metathesis *k-(m)š-r- > *k-r-(m)š- might have happened either in an unidentified mediator language or a Semitic donor or (less probably so) in Greek itself. The change *t > š, necessary for the change of Classical Syriac ܟܘܡܬܪܐ‎ (kummaṯrā) to the Greek word, is to be found in Phoenician and early Aramaic.

The scholar also notes that the related cultural term seems to be widespread in Caucasian languages; compare (not to list over a dozen lemmata) Lak ккурмуз (k:urmuz, “(wild) cherry plum”) and Dargwa гимиргьи (gimirhi, “quince”), reconstructed protoform Proto-Northeast Caucasian *ḵurmäśV / *ḵurmäʒ́V (“some kind of fruit”), and possibly Proto-Northwest Caucasian *mǝrǝgʷǝźʷǝ (“some sort of plum or peach”) with metathesis, attested in some Abkhaz compound words.

κερᾰσός • (kerasós) m (genitive κερᾰσοῦ); second declension

1. bird cherry, Prunus avium (tree)

• κεράσιον (kerásion)
• Κερασοῦς (Kerasoûs)

• (from the Ancient Greek variant κεράσιον (kerásion)) Greek: κεράσι (kerási)
  • → Ottoman Turkish: كراس‎ (kiras), كراز‎ (kiraz), كیراز‎ (kiraz), كرس‎ (kires)
    • Turkish: kiraz
    • → Armenian: քիրազ (kʿiraz)
    • → Crimean Tatar: kiraz
    • → Azerbaijani: gilas
• → Albanian: qershi
• → Arabic: قَرَاسِيَا‎ (qarāsiyā), قَرَاصِيَا‎ (qarāṣiyā); قَارَاسِيَا‎ (qārāsiyā), جَرَاسِيَا‎ (jarāsiyā), شَرَاسِيَا‎ (šarāsiyā) (from the Ancient Greek variant κεράσιον (kerásion))
• → Aramaic: (from the Ancient Greek variant κεράσιον (kerásion))

  Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: קׅירְסֵי‎ (qirəsē)

  Classical Syriac: ܩܪܣܝܐ‎ (qerrassiyā)

• → Latin: cerasus
  • ⇒ Latin: cerasum
    • ⇒ Latin: cerasium (or from the Ancient Greek variant κεράσιον (kerásion))
      • ⇒ Latin: ceresium
        • ⇒ Latin: ceresia (see there for further descendants)
• → Middle Armenian: կեռաս (keṙas), կերաս (keras)
  • Armenian: կեռաս (keṙas)

• “κερασός”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• κερασός in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• κέρασος in Trapp, Erich, et al. (1994–2007) Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität besonders des 9.-12. Jahrhunderts [the Lexicon of Byzantine Hellenism, Particularly the 9th–12th Centuries], Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN
• Blažek, Václav (2014), “Etymologizing ‘unetymologizable’ Greek dendronyms”, in Graeco-Latina Brunensia‎, volume 19, issue 1, pages 44–45