ἀρδυφιός <Iranian; Roman period>
👉 ἀρδυφιός (cj.) – a Persian word with the meaning of ἀετός ‘eagle’, actually attested in three different variants: ἀρδύφιος (Cyrill. α 878), ἀδρυφιός (Hdn. 3.1, p. 126 = Choerob., Epimer. in Ps. p. 128.9; with a statement that the word is oxytonic) and ἄρξιφος (Hsch. α 7358); the two latter forms are deformations of ἀρδυφιός (ἄρξιφος had been already distorted in a source of Hesychius, for the alphabetical order in his lexicon is correct: α 7357: ἄρξαι, α 7358: ἄρξιφος, α 7359: Ἀροανδικόν).
⚠ Hdn. 3.1, p. 126 (= Choerob., Epimer. in Ps. p. 128.9): (...) ἀδρυφιός παρὰ Πέρσαις ὁ ἀετός. – “(...) adryphios (means) eagle aamong the Persians”; Hsch. α 7358: ἄρξιφος· ἀετός, παρὰ Πέρσαις “arksiphos: eagle, among the Persians”.
🅔 A Persian loanword – Young Avestan ərəzifya- prob. ‘eagle’ (attested only in the compound ərəzifyō-parəna- prob. ‘eagle-feathered’), Middle Persian āluf, āluh ‘eagle’, Modern Persian āluh (also ulah, ullah) ‘id.’; cf. Armenian arcowi and arciw ‘id.’ (an inherited word or a loanword from Iranian?). Presumably, ἀρδυφιός goes back to Old Persian *ərdifya- (or a similar form). It is little likely that the Hesychian gloss ἄρξιφος should be corrected to ἄρζιφος and treated as a Median counterpart of Old Persian *ərdifya- (cf. Old Persian [d] vs. Median [z]).
📖 Data: AiW: 354; CPD: 7; CPED: 96; DMMPP: 5; NDAE: 74. Ref.: cf. Arnott 2007: 1 and 27; Brust 2008: 91-114; Greppin 1978: 48; Olsen 1999: 439; Thompson 1936: 55;Tolman 1921: 236.