ܩܰܡܪܳܐ qmrʾ qamrā 1. strap; 2. s. ܕܡܲܠܘܵܫܐܹ d-mlwšʾ d-malwāšē Zodiac
Derivative: ܩܘܡܪܐ qwmrʾ strap, belt (?)
MIr. *kamar; cf. Av. kamarā-; MP kamar [kml] waist, belt, girdle (CPD 49); NP kamar the middle of anything; girdle, zone, belt (Steingass 1048 f.; Horn 193); kamrā the string worn by the followers of Zoroaster (ibid. 1049); Arm. LW kamar (Hübschmann AG 164, no. 296). See also Hübschmann 1895, 88; Nöldeke 1892, 40. — Talm. Aram. qmwr, qmwrʾ, qmwryn, qmrʾ belt; Md. qwmrʾ qumrā shows a back vowel instead of /a/ probably owing to the influence of the following /m/, whereas the vocalism of the Targumic forms seems unexplainable (Telegdi 254, 123); cf. also Md. qʾmʾr qamar (st. cstr.), qmara belt, girdle (Nöldeke MG 18; Drower – Macuch 1963, 401 and 412). Widengren (1960, 100) considers Md. qumrā as a loanword from MIr. kamar, and observes that MP kamar, attested in Draxt ī –sūrīg § 34, and epigraphically (cf. Gignoux 1972, s.v. kamar in KKZ 4), is a loanword from Parthian. As far as the NP doublet kamar and kamrā is concerned, Weryho 1972, 309 points out that “Pers. kamar, a belt, girdle (orig. < Av. kamara) borrowed كمر by Syr. in the form kamrā and returned to NP as كمرا with the Syr. nominal final Alef”. It is a rare example of a Persian word formally modified by Syr. ● strap 2Rg 1, 8; Afr 123, 17; ES 2, 379C (s.l.); Nars Jos 17, 17; PsC 8, 6; EN 37, 34; Zodiac KwD 47, 22; qwmrʾ Ge ZA 8, 95, 14; BB 1735, 22 ◆ LS 673b; PS Suppl. 305: a girdle, a vestment of the altar; Lagarde GA 80, 206