ʾlmʾs

Middle Persian

Alternative forms

• ʾlmʾst' (almāst)

Etymology

Usually derived from Byzantine Greek ἀδάμας (adámas), but the Greek word itself is now considered an oriental loanword. Compare Akkadian 𒋤𒉘 (elmēšu [SUD.ÁG], “a valuable stone, perhaps amber”). Other Iranian reflexes of the same word: Manichaean Middle Persian ʾrmʾs, Northern Kurdish almas, almast, almaz, elmas, Zazaki almast, almas, elmas.

Noun

ʾlmʾs • (almās)

1. steel
2. diamond

Descendants

• Classical Persian: الماس (almās)
  • → Arabic: أَلْمَاس (ʔalmās)
    • Gulf Arabic: ألماص (əlmasˤ)
    • → Swahili: almasi
  • → Bashkir: алмас (almas)
  • → Georgian: ალმასი (almasi)
    • → Bats: ალმას (almas)
    • → Ossetian: алмаси (almasi)
  • → Kazakh: алмас (almas)
  • → Middle Armenian: ալմաս (almas), ալմաստ (almast), ալմազ (almaz), էլմաս (ēlmas)
    • → Armenian: ալմաս (almas)
  • → Russian: алма́з (almáz)
    • → Azerbaijani: almaz
  • → Hindustani:

    Hindi: अलमास (almās)

    Urdu: الماس (almās)

  • → Kyrgyz: алмас (almas)
  • → Ottoman Turkish: الماس (elmas)
    • Turkish: elmas, almas (dialectal)
    • → Bulgarian: елмаз (elmaz)
  • → Southern Altai: алмаз (almaz)
  • → Tatar: алмас (almas), алмаз (almaz)
  • → Uzbek: olmos
• → Classical Syriac: ܐܠܡܣܐ (ʾlmsʾ)

References

• MacKenzie, D. N. (1971) “almās(t)”, in A concise Pahlavi dictionary, London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press, page 7
• Skok, Petar (1971) “adàmanat”, in Etimologijski rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika [Etymological Dictionary of the Croatian or Serbian Language] (in Serbo-Croatian), volumes 1 (A – J), Zagreb: JAZU, page 8
• Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–) “elmas”, in Nişanyan Sözlük
• Black, Jeremy, George, Andrew, Postgate, Nicholas (2000) “elmēšu(m)”, in A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian, 2nd corrected edition, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, page 70