قلقاس

Limetoka wapi

From Classical Syriac ܩܠܩܐܣ (qōlqās), ܩܠܘܩܣ (qōlqōs), ܩܠܘܩܘܣ (qōlōqōs), ܩܠܩܐ (qalqā, qelqā, “taro”), still attested in Turoyo ܩܰܠܩܳܐ (qalqo, “a kind of cardoon or artichoke”), Northeastern Neo-Aramaic ܩܰܠܩܳܐ (qalqa) and in some dialects ܩܰܩܢܳܐ (qaqna), which also explains Persian کنگر (kangar, “thistle; acanthus”), and also in Mishnaic Hebrew קולקס, קרקס (“taro”).

This is said to be from Egyptian, as the Ancient Greek κολοκασία (kolokasía) and Latin colocasia meaning taro is known to be transferred only from the 4ᵗʰ century AD from the meaning of sacred lotus which also has an edible rhizome, but Coptic ⲕⲟⲗⲧⲁϧ (koltax), ⲕⲟⲗⲅⲁⲥ (kolgas), ⲕⲟⲣⲕⲁⲥⲓ (korkasi) is reckoned as from Hebrew or Arabic.

The origin is then Semitic at least ultimately in view of Akkadian qulqulliānu, qulqullânu (“a type of cassia?”), Ugaritic 𐎖𐎍𐎖𐎍 (qlql, some medicinal plant also fed to horses), Hebrew קְלוֹקֵל (qəlōqēl, “inferior, poor; miserable food”), Arabic قِلْقِل (qilqil, “some kind of hard-grained plant”), قُلَاقِل (qulāqil, “devil-bean, Crotalaria retusa”), the latter and قُلْقُل (qulqul) also meaning “agile, exuberant”, evidently all just reduplications of the root ق ل ل (q l l).