LL-L "Etymology" 2011.03.29 (01) [EN]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 29 March - Volume 01
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From: Paul Finlow-Bates <wolf_thunder51 at yahoo.co.uk>

Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2011.03.28 (01) [EN-NL]



In Iran there is a small wild red tulip called a *laleh*; it is a quite a
popular girl's name too. I wonder if this has the same IE root as "lily"?



Paul

Derby

England.



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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>

Subject: Etymology


Thanks, Paul! This is really interesting since I was just following the same
lead.

The official line is that “lily” and its cognates come from L. *lilia*, pl.
of *lilium*, and is a cognate of Greek *leírion* (λείριoν) ‘lily’.

[By the way, in Persian ‘lily’ is *šūšan* (سوسن), which spread as a loanword
through Central and Southern Asia, and the ancestor of which may well be the
origin of the Hebrew word *šōšannāh* (שׁוֹשַנָּה) ‘lily’, ‘rose’, which I
recently mentioned.]

And, indeed, one of the primitive tulips has the Persian name *lāleh* (لاله),
a word that found its way into the Persian-influenced and eventually
Turkic-influenced languages of a vast region, e.g. Urdu *gul lāleh* (گل لالہ,
“*laleh* flower”, versus Hindi *ṭyūlip* ट्यूलिप < English “tulip”), Uzbek *
lola*, Uyghur *lalä* (لاله), Turkish *lale*, Azeri *dağlaləsi* (“mountain *
lale*”), Bulgarian *lale* (лале), Macedonian *lale* (лале), Serbian
*lala*(лала, versus Croatian
*tulipan*).

I’m wondering if there has been some etymological “contamination” between
this and “lily.”.

The “tulip” group of names comes from older *tulipan* which is said to go
back, via Ottoman Turkish *tülbend*, to Persian *dulband* ‘turban’, because
the closed blossom was likened to the shape of a turban by Westerners.
However, Ottoman Turkish *tülbend* also means ‘gauze (band)’, which would be
consistent with Persian **tūrband* (*توربند, “gauze band”).

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA



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