بختري

Where it comes from

Possibly from Ancient Greek βούφθαλμον (boúphthalmon). Interestingly, the Dioskurides interpolations for this plant name also rendered Latin caltha κάχλα (kákhla) (and χάλκα (khálka), χαλκῖτις (khalkîtis), χάλκανθον (khálkanthon), χαλκάνθεμον (khalkánthemon), evidently confused with native Greek stems), as it is attested instead of *κάλχα (*kálkha)—at least this is believed to be the Latin word by classical philologers rather than an Old Arabic or Aramaic version of كَحْلَاء (kaḥlāʔ) that comes to mind to the Semitist—, and Hesychius has a καχίλα (kakhíla) meaning ἄνθη (ánthē) used by the Cypriots, in either cases /tʰ/ ~ /θ/ going over to /x/ and the cluster reverted, so this may be a Cypriot Greek borrowing rather than a Bedouin distortion.