մըկլըմանդի

Armenian

Alternative forms

• մուկնլմանտիլ (muknlmantil), մկնըմանդիլ (mknəmandil) — Karabakh
• մուկնումանդիլ (muknumandil)

Etymology

The origin is uncertain. The Old Armenian form is reconstructable as *մգլամանդի (*mglamandi). Martirosyan proposes derivation from *մգլ- (*mgl-, “mould”) (see մգլել (mglel)) + -ա- (-a-) + *մանդի (*mandi, “yarn or web”), probably from մանեմ (manem, “to spin”) + -դի (-di). The spider-web is taken to be, then, a mould-like yarn/web. The Karabakh forms may be regarded as folk-etymological reshaping as ‘kerchief of a mouse’, from մոկնը (moknə, “mouse”) (Old Armenian մուկն (mukn)) + մանդիլ (mandil, “kerchief”).

Noun

մըկլըմանդի • (məkləmandi)

1. (dialectal, Goris) spiderweb

Synonyms

• սարդոստայն (sardostayn)

References

• Margaryan, Alekʻsandr (1975) Gorisi barbaṙə [The dialect of Goris]‎^[1] (in Armenian), Yerevan: University Press, page 440a
• Martirosyan, Hrach (2010) “*mglamandi”, in Etymological Dictionary of the Armenian Inherited Lexicon (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 8), Leiden and Boston: Brill, pages 456–457