Etymology of Russian "sorok"?

[A.Smith]

According to Tsyganenko's dictionary (G.P. Tsyganenko. "Etimologicheskii
slovar' russkogo iazyka", Kiev, "Radians'ka shkola", 1989, pp.393-94), the
word "sorok" is an Eastern Slavic word; it began to appear in written speech
in the twelve century. Its origin is likely to be related to the second
meaning of the word SOROK" (with a hard sign in the end) which denotes
"SACK" (meshok), which used to contain 40 sable skins (sorok sobolei). She
says: " when people wanted to buy some fur they were offered sacks containg
40  pieces in each sack".She also relates it to the word "sorochka"
(rubakha) and says that the word sorok might have come originally either
from Germany, Greece, or from Iceland: serkr (=rubakha).

Alexandra Smith

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