ܚܰܪܦܽܘܫܬܳܐ [?] ḥrpwštʾ ḥarpuštā, plur. ḥarpušyātā black scarabeus
LS believes that the Syr. word is a pure Semitic one, to be related to Syr. ܚܲܒܫܘܼܫܬܵܐ ḥabšuštā scarabaeus (LS 213b), with many connected words in other Semitic languages (see Militarev – Kogan 2005, s.v.); the Semitic origin is convincing from the semantic point of view, but it is not very clear from the phonetic side. On the other hand, the Iranian origin from MP, NP xārpušt porcupine, hedgehog, lit. thorn-back (CPD 94; Steingass 437; Horn 102), suggested by Müller 1894, 364, 8, seems formally very probable, but semantically difficult. Müller, on the basis of the Syr. word, holds that it would be possible to postulate also for NP xārpušt the meaning of "provided with a back hard like a stone", because NP xār "thorn, the quills of a porcupine, sting" may also be used, instead of NP xārā, in the meaning of "a very hard stone" (Steingass 437). However, the Syr. term is early attested and, in any case, it should have been borrowed from MP xār thorn (CPD 94), which never means "a hard stone"; furthermore, MP, NP xārpušt is never attested in a meaning different from "porcupine". Consequently, Weryho 1971, 305 suggests a different Iranian model of the presumed borrowing, namely NP xarpaša fly, gad-fly (Steingass 452), but even this proposal is not completely convincing from the formal point of view ● Med 578, 22; BB 776, 17 ◆ LS 258b; PS 1382; Duval index pers. 217