լեառնակ

Old Armenian

Alternative forms

լեառնական (leaṙnakan) — variant reading

Etymology

Transliteration of Ancient Greek λάρναξ (lárnax), which must have stood in the Greek original of Paterica and was correctly transliterated by the Armenian translator as *լառնակ (*laṙnak). This was then "corrected" to լեառնակ (leaṙnak) by the later copying scribes, who were unfamiliar with the rare word and confused it with լեառն (leaṙn, “mountain”) and its derivatives, e.g. լեառնական (leaṙnakan, “mountainous”).

Noun

լեառնակ • (leaṙnak)

(hapax) larnax
- Varkʻ srbocʻ harancʾ [Paterica] Vasn poṙnkutʻean:
  […] եւ մտեալ անկցիս ՚ի վերայ լեառնակի (var. լեառնականի) հարցն եւ ասա […]
  […] ew mteal ankcʻis ’i veray leaṙnaki (var. leaṙnakani) harcʻn ew asa […]
  […] and having entered, you shall fall on the larnax of the fathers and say...

Usage notes

The word is not included in the standard dictionaries of Old Armenian. It is attested only once in the Armenian Paterica and was brought to light in 1944 by the Georgian Armenologist Ilia Abuladze.

References

Abulaje, Ilia (1944) “Hin hayerenum gorcacvac mi nor baṙ [A New Word Used in Old Armenian]”, in HSSṘ GA Teġekagir hasarakakan gitutʻyunneri [Bulletin of the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR: Social Sciences]‎^[1] (in Armenian), numbers 1-2, pages 107–108
Ačaṙyan, Hračʻya (1944) “Haykakankʻ A [Armeniaca I]”, in HSSṘ GA Teġekagir hasarakakan gitutʻyunneri [Bulletin of the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR: Social Sciences]‎^[2] (in Armenian), number 5, page 25 of 25–30 = Ačaṙean, Hračʻeay (1979) “Haykakankʻ (Armeniaca)”, in Hayerēn armatakan baṙaran [Armenian Etymological Dictionary] (in Armenian), 2nd edition, volume IV, Yerevan: University Press, page 625