سرج

Where it comes from

Borrowed from Aramaic סַרְגָא (sargā) (in Classical Syriac ܣܰܪܓܳܐ), from סְרַג (srag, “to bind, to plait”) (in Classical Syriac ܣܪܰܓ).

A theory diffused by Abaev derives the word from Iranian, compare Sogdian [script needed] (sʾγr /⁠sāγr⁠/), Ossetian саргъ (sarǧ), but the Iranic words are, if related, perhaps more likely to come from Arabic, or Aramaic, the existence of which he fails to note; the same assertion is made by Corriente/Pereira/Vicente “in spite of the Syriac”, because “the greater part of the Semitic basic lexicon with respect to horses is introduced into the Middle East by Indo-Europeans”.

However, apart from the fact that camels too bear saddles, that notion is vague on statistical grounds: If one goes through the list of horse tack terms, there are just few, particularly less important terms from this semantical field that can only be presumed to be Iranian, comprising بَرْذَعَة (barḏaʕa, “packsaddle”) and جُوَالَق (juwālaq, “saddlebag”), نَمَط (namaṭ, “a rug laid over a saddle”), رَسَن (rasan, “noseband”). Others like خُرْج (ḵurj, “saddlebag”) and لِجَام (lijām, “bridle”) have only vaguely been claimed to be Iranian and themselves been “reborrowed” into Persian, and have Semitic explanations too, or one has much evidence on one side like one has on the other, so for شِكَال (šikāl, “hobble”). Thus it is here: The correspondence of the Aramaic consonants is regular to those of Arabic شَرَّجَ (šarraja, “to weave around”), as has been indicated already by Fraenkel.

Where it comes from

Borrowed from Aramaic סְרַג (srag, “to bind, to plait; to girth; to saddle”) (in Classical Syriac ܣܪܰܓ); in the meaning “to saddle” denominal verb in Arabic. Doublet of شَرَجَ (šaraja, “to put together, to interweave”).

Where it comes from

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.