LHMA

Middle Persian

Alternative forms

• [script needed] (nʾn' /⁠nān⁠/) (Book Pahlavi)
• 𐫗𐫀𐫗 (nʾn /⁠nān⁠/) (Manichaean)

Etymology

From Old Persian [Term?], from Proto-Iranian *nagna- (compare Sogdian [script needed] (nγn- /⁠naγn-⁠/, “bread”), Baluchi نگن (nagan), Pashto [script needed] (naγan), Manichaean Parthian 𐫗𐫃𐫗 (ngn /⁠naγn⁠/), Khotanese [script needed] (nāṃji), and possibly the Old Armenian loanword նկան (nkan)); from Proto-Indo-Iranian [Term?] (compare Sanskrit नग्नहु (nagnahu, “ferment, a drug used for fermenting spirituous liquor”)). Further origin is unclear, but may stem from Proto-Iranian *ni-kana- (“buried or laid under hot ashes”), from Proto-Indo-European *ní (“inside, down”) + Proto-Indo-Iranian *kanH- (“to dig”). Another theory derives the term from Proto-Indo-European *negʷ- (“bare, naked”), in the sense "plain bread".

Logogram from Aramaic 𐡋𐡇𐡌𐡀 (laḥmā [lḥmʾ]).

Cognate to Proto-Uralic [Term?] and Proto-Yeniseian [Term?].

Noun

LHMA • (LHMA /nān/)

1. (Book Pahlavi) bread
2. (Book Pahlavi) food

Descendants

• Classical Persian: نان (nān)
  • Dari: نان (nān)
  • Iranian Persian: نان (nân)
  • Tajik: нон (non)
  • → Bengali: নান (nan)
  • → Hindustani:

    Hindi: नान (nān)

    Urdu: نان (nān)

    • → English: naan
  • → Pashto: نان (nān)
  • → Ottoman Turkish: نان (nān)
  • → Uyghur: نان (nan)
    • → Mandarin: 饢／馕, 馕 (náng)

References

• Bailey, H. W. (1979) “nāṃji”, in Dictionary of Khotan Saka, Cambridge, London, New York, Melbourne: Cambridge University press, page 179b
• Edelʹman, D. I. (2015) Etimologičeskij slovarʹ iranskix jazykov (in Russian), volume 5, Moscow: Vostochnaya Literatura, pages 418-9
• Harmatta, János (1953) “Three Iranian Words for ‘Bread’”, in Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae‎^[1], volume 3, number 3, pages 245–283
• MacKenzie, D. N. (1971) “nān”, in A concise Pahlavi dictionary, London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press, page 58
• Mayrhofer, Manfred (1996) Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen‎^[2] (in German), volume II, Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, page 6