ἀρσενικóν <Iranian/Semitic?; Classical period>
👉 ἀρσενικóν and ἀρρενικόν n. – ‘orpiment (an arsenic sulphide mineral)’ (Arist., Probl. 966b; Thphr., De lap. 50-51; etc.), later also ἀρρενική f. ‘id.’ (Gal. 12.212, 13.852) and ἀρσενίκιον n. ‘id.’ (Ps.-Gal. 14.560; Eust., Comm. ad Hom. Il., vol. III, p. 418.27f.).
⚠ The Greeks imported orpiment probably from the Near East, perhaps from Asia Minor, Kurdistan or Iran. Cf. a mountain of orpiment in Carmania (a region in Iran), mentioned in Str. 15.2.14 (on the basis of Onasicritus, a historian and philosopher accompanying Alexander the Great in Asia). Moreover, cf. the expression ἀρσενικὸν τὸ Ποντικόν (Gal. 13.944).
🅔 An Iranian word that the Greeks took from an Old Iranian language or, indirectly, through a Semitic mediation. An Old or Middle Iranian counterpart is not attested, but there are similar words with the meaning ‘arsenic’ and/or ‘sulphide of arsenic’ in other Oriental languages: Imperial Aramaic zrnyk, Syriac zarnīkā, Armenian zaṙik, Modern Persian zarnī, zirnīḫ, zirnīq, zarnīq, Arabic zirnīḫ, zarnīḫ, etc. The original Old Iranian form was derived from a word with the basic meaning ‘gold, golden’ by means of the suffix -ka- – cf. Young Avestan zaranya- ‘gold’, zarənya-, zaranaēna-, zarənaēna- ‘golden’, Middle Persian zarr ‘gold’ and zarrēn ‘golden’, Parthian zarnēn ‘golden’. In Greek, a metathesis of *σαρ- > ἀρσ- took place; cf. ἀξίνη, ἄσφαλτος. The form with -ρρ- is secondary due to the assimilation of -ρσ- (cf. ἄρσην / ἀρσενικός vs. ἄρρην / ἀρρενικός ‘male’). Cf. other hypotheses: 1. Greek ἀρσενικóν went back to the Iranian name of Drangiana, i.e. Old Persian Zranka-; cf. Greek Δραγγιανή, Δραγγή, Ζαραγγιανή, etc. ‘Drangiana’, as well as Σαράγγαι, Ζαράγγαι, Ζαραγγαῖοι ‘Drangianians’; 2. Greek ἀρσενικóν was primary (from ἀρσενικός, -ή, -όν ‘male’) and borrowed into Oriental languages.
📖 Data: AiW: 1677f., 1683; ALG: s.v. zirnīḫ; CPD: 98; DMMPP: 384f.; DMWA: 376; DNWSI: 340; NDAE: 176; PED: 616; SL: 399. Ref.: EDG: 141; Hinz 1975: 278; ILS: 178; Lewy 1895: 55; Lüschen 1979: 175; Rosół 2013: 137; cf. Brust 2008: 117-122.