Talk:ներքինի
Add topicLatest comment: 6 years ago by Vahagn Petrosyan
Mmh, how did a derivation from ներքին (nerkʻin, “inner, internal”) come to mean "eunuch"? --Per utramque cavernam (talk) 17:45, 14 March 2018 (UTC)
- It's an Iranian calque. See Meillet's explanation that I just added. --Vahag (talk) 18:35, 14 March 2018 (UTC)
- @Vahagn Petrosyan: Thanks. I'm still puzzled by the semantics though; Meillet doesn't say anything about it. Idle speculation: perhaps sense 2 was the first, and it originally simply meant "insider"?
- I guess we'll have to wait for an Iranologist. --Per utramque cavernam (talk) 19:02, 14 March 2018 (UTC)
- Yes, I think the literal meaning is "insider", because eunuchs are inside the monarch's household. --Vahag (talk) 19:40, 14 March 2018 (UTC)