ἀσκός <Semitic?; Archaic period>
👉 ἀσκός m. – ‘leather sack for liquids, wineskin’ (Hom., Il. 3.247; Hom., Od. 5.265, 6.78, 9.196; etc.).
🅔 Perhaps a distorted Semitic word – Akkadian ziqqu ‘wineskin’ (from Aramaic), Imperial Aramaic zq ‘skin used to transport wine, oil, etc.’, Jewish Aramaic zîqqā, zyq ‘id.’, Syriac zeqqā ‘water skin’, etc. It is difficult to explain the differences in terms of phonetics: a metathesis zVq- → ἀσκ- ?; cf. ἀξίνη, ἀρσενικός, ἄσφαλτος. Cf. other etymologies: 1. related to Sanskrit atka- ‘armour, mail, garment’ etc.; 2. compared to Hsch. μ 911: †μέσκος· κώδιον, δέρμα. Νίκανδρος (cf. Nic., Th. 549: πέσκος, as well as Hsch. π 2016 and Phot. π 812); ἀ- from *m̥-; 3. juxtaposed with νάκος n. ‘fleece’ etc.; 4. from *ἀγ-σκός, compared to ἀγέλη f. ‘herd’; 5. from *ϝαρσκός, related to Sanskrit vraścana- ‘cutting, wounding, a cut, incision’, pra-vraska- ‘a cut’, etc.; 6. both ἀσκός and ἀσπίς f. ‘shield’ from *ϝασ-, connected with Mycenaean wao (dual.) with an unclear meaning (allegedly ‘shield’ < ‘leather’); 7. a substrate word (related to Basque aska ‘drinking trough, trough, manger’); 8. a Pre-Greek word (compared to φάσκωλος m. / φάσκωλον n. ‘leathern bag’); 9. from Semitic or Egyptian: Akkadian saqqu(m) ‘sack, sackcloth’, Biblical Hebrew śaq ‘sack, sackcloth (worn in mourning)’ etc., or Egyptian sꜣq, sq ‘sack’, Coptic ⲥⲟⲕ (S, B), ⲥⲱⲕ (S, B), ⲥⲁⲕ (S) ‘sack, sackcloth, bag’ (cf. σάκκος).
📖 Data: CAD: XXI, 129; CDA: 448; DJBA: 411; DJPA: 176; DNWSI: 339; SL: 393. Ref.: Rosół 2013: 24-26; cf. Bernal 1987-2006: III, 138; Bury 1883: 81; DELG: 125; EDG: 151; Furnée 1972: 241; GEW: I, 165; Hubschmid 1955: 80f.; Mayrhofer 1957; Petersson 1923: 15; Taillardat 1960: 13f.; Thieme 1953: 579.