ܐܰܦܽܘܪܣܡܳܐ pwrsmʾ apursmā balsam tree, balm
Allotrope: ܐܘܪܣܡܐ pwrsmʾ. Reborrowing: ܐܒܝܪܣܢ ʾbyrsn (mss. ܐܒܝܣܪܢ ʾbysrn) balm oil
ʾpwrsmʾ, pwrsmʾ ← MP *apursām, ManMP (or ManParth.?) ʾbwrs[ʾm?] balm of Gilead (Henning 1940, 44; Weber 2000, pl. 70, frg. M 501n; Durkin-Meisterernst 2004, 15 reads ʾbwrsʾm /abursām/ and translates "balsam"), ← Gr. ὀποβάλσαμον; Arm. LW aprsam balm (Hübschmann AG 107, no. 57); ʾbyrsn ← NP abarsān balm of Gilead. — Talm. Aram. ʾprsmʾ, Md. pursma, prusma, pursama (Drower-Macuch 1963, 369a). Maggi 2003, no. 1 supposes that the Gr. word was borrowed by MP through Parthian, where the loanword would have assumed the form *abursām on the model of Parth. *aburs juniper (see ManMP and ManParth. ʾbwrs /aburs/ juniper: Durkin-Meisterernst 2004, 15). From MIr. the word passed into Middle Aramaic, before the sonorization of the internal bilabial plosive -p-. Huyse 1999/2, 137 claims that the word for "balm" is to be distinguished from the homonymous proper noun MP ʾpwrsʾn, Parth. ʾpwrsʾm, Gr. Ἀβουρσαμ attested in KZ. On the other hand, a more recent form of the Iranian word is the basis of Syr. ʾbyrsn. In Syr. there is also attested the loanword from Gr. βάλσαμον (in its turn a loanword from a Semitic language, cf. Hebr. bāśām), namely blsmwn (LS 76b), and the loanword from Arab. (or NP?) balasān, namely Syr. blsʾn (ibid.). Cf. s.v. ʾbryšʾ and Laufer 1919, 429–434 ● ʾpwrsmʾ MS 2, 10, 18; SB 97, 8; Duv B 2, 7, 9; EN 24, 44; BA 1259; BB 252, 12; pwrsmʾ Sir 24, 15 (21); ESL 2, 561, 3; EC th 4, 10, 3; Gal ZDMG 39, 254, 2; ʾbyrsn CommD, see Van Rompay 1986, 110.6, 7 (ed.), 141.5 (transl.) ◆ LS 43b; 602a; Lagarde GA 17, 30: ← Gr. βάλσαμον; Löw n. 53; PS Suppl. 30 f. and 268