ܓܘܢܣܩ gwnsq orchis
MP *gund (ī) sag, lit. "testicle of a dog", cf. MP sag [KLBA] dog (CPD 73) and MP gund testicle (CPD 38); NP gund-i sag orchis (Steingass 1099). Gignoux 1998–1999, 198 observes that the first part of the Syr. word formally is a loanword from MP gund (® gunn, with the regular assimilation: see § 11.5), but semantically is a calque of Greek ὄρχις which means testicle and bulbous plant; the Greek expression, in its turn, was translated in Latin as satyrium because of its aphrodisiac effects. As to the aphrodisiac effects and the resemblance between the seed of this plant and the testicles Gignoux refers to Plin., Nat. hist. 26, 62, 95. Note that Gr. ὄρχις also means "orchis" (e.g. in Theophrastus), and designates a kind of olive: cf. Frisk II 433, who claims that ὄρχις is used for "orchis" because of the form of its root, and for a kind of olive because of the form of the fruit. The reading gwyhsq and the etymological and semantic interpretation (← Pers. gūy ball + ḥasak Eryngium, the round ball of the Eryngium, a medicine for diarrhoea and heartburn) given in PS Suppl. 69 are incorrect, as already pointed out by Gignoux, cit. ● Med 294, 9; BB 469, 12 ◆ LS 126a; Lagarde GA 27, 61; Löw 62; Duval index pers. 217