خرچنگ

خرچنگ (definite accusative خرچنگی‎, plural خرچنگلر‎)

1. Arabic spelling of xərçəng

Having its shape in New Persian due to folk etymological connection to خر‎ (xar, “ass”) and چنگ‎ (čang, “claw”) from Middle Persian [Book Pahlavi needed] (klcng /karčang/), 𐫞𐫏𐫡𐫉𐫗𐫃‎‎ (qyrzng‎ /karzang/), cognate to Central Kurdish قرژاڵ‎ (qerzhal), قرژانگ‎ (qerzhang, “crab”), Southern Kurdish قِرژِنگ‎ (qerzhang, “crab”), Northern Luri کرژنڳ‎ (kerzheng), Zazaki kerkınc (“crab”) and Middle Armenian քարժանկ (kʿaržank, “crawfish”), ultimately from Old Iranian *karičanaka-, from Proto-Iranian *kar-, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker-, with a different second component encountered in Avestan 𐬐𐬵𐬀𐬭𐬞𐬎‎ (kharpu, “crab”) and Sanskrit कर्कट (karkaṭa, “crab”), Old Armenian կարիճ (karič, “scorpion”), Ancient Greek καρίς (karís, “shrimp”), Ancient Greek καρκίνος (karkínos, “crab”), Latin cancer (“crab”), and if we compare Ancient Greek κάραβος (kárabos, “a kind of beetle; a kind of crayfish”) then Old Armenian քարբ (kʿarb, “asp, basilisk”) and the Semitic family of Arabic عَقْرَب‎ (ʕaqrab, “scorpion”) has to be noted, a circumstance which may point to an ideophonic phenomenon.

خرچنگ • (xarčang) (plural خرچنگ‌ها‎ (xarčang-hâ))

1. crab (crustacean)

• → Azerbaijani: xərçəng
• → Ottoman Turkish: خرچنگ‎ (harçeng)

• Hübschmann, Heinrich (1895) Persische Studien [Persian Studies] (in German), Strasbourg: K.J. Trübner, page 54