فاغرة

Where it comes from

On one hand, the distribution of this term and its alternative forms—when compared to that of Persian borrowings such as غَوْشَنَة (ḡawšana) and أُشْتُرْغَار (ʔušturḡār)—suggests that this term is also a Persian borrowing. The variants point to some Persian ***فاگِره (***fāgira); compare Classical Persian فَاخِرَه (fāxira, “Szechuan pepper”), which also appears occasionally as فَاغِرَه (fāġira). The Persian word is ascribed an internal etymology from فَخْر (faxr, “glory”), on account of the vainglory associated with the spice.

Nevertheless, lexicographers, even native Persian ones, often favor an explanation based on an Arabic feminine active participle derived from the verbs فَغَرَ (faḡara, “to open (the mouth) wide”) and فَجَرَ (fajara, “to cleave”). Under this explanation, this term would refer to either the half-open berries revealing their seeds or to the spice’s ethnomedical function of dispersing swellings and opening network vessels (relating to the root of Zanthoxylum avicennae). A similar association is reflected in the Persian plant names کبابه شکافته (kabâbe šekâfte, literally “cleft cubeb”) and دهان باز (dahân bâz, literally “open mouth”). Ultimately, then, the term appears a phono-semantic matching from Middle Chinese 花椒 (MC xwae tsjew)—perhaps with a third word.