# պեղեմ
## Old Armenian
### Etymology

The origin is uncertain. Perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bel- (“to dig, cut off?”) and cognate with Sanskrit बिल (bila, “hole, pit”) and Irish bealach (“way, pass”). Others connect this verb to Urartian 𒉿𒇷 (pi-li /⁠pili⁠/, “canal”); cognate with Hurrian 𒉿𒇷 (pe-li /⁠peli⁠/, “canal”), 𒉺𒆷 (pa-la /⁠pala⁠/, “canal”); rejected by Diakonoff on phonological grounds, but Nielsen adduced the ł-conditioned -իղ- (-ił-) → -եղ- (-eł-) transformation argued for in Martirosyan's etymology of շեղջ (šełǰ), աբեղայ (abełay), and ասեղն (asełn) in favour of a denominal origin of the verb from **պեղ (**peł) ← **պիղ (**pił, “canal”), ultimately from Urartian. Others connect Dagestani terms like Bezhta пили (pili), Tsez пелу (pelu, “pipe, blood vessel”), Lak ппиӏллу (“pipe”); rejected by Nielsen on vocalic grounds but with no detail given while citing an example with the Avar-Andic -u-, yet these and Dargwa -a- contrast with the -i- vocalism of the terms found in Tsezic and Lak.

### Verb

պեղեմ • (pełem) (aorist indicative պեղեցի)
* to dig, to hollow, to excavate, to delve; to sap, to mine, to sink
    պեղել գուբս, հորս ― pełel gubs, hors ― to open a trench, to sink a well
    զարտասուաց աղբիւրս պեղել ― zartasuacʻ ałbiwrs pełel ― to shed tears
* to engrave

#### Derived terms

* պեղումն (pełumn)

#### Descendants

* → Armenian: պեղել (peġel) (learned)

### References

* ↑ Petersson, Herbert (1916) “Beiträge zur armenischen Wortkunde”, in Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung (in German), volume 47, number 3/4, pages 264–265
* ↑ Petersson, Herbert (1920) Arische und armenische Studien (Lunds Universitets Årsskrift N.F. Avd. 1, Bd. 16. Nr. 3) (in German), Lund, Leipzig, page 29
* ↑ Ačaṙean, Hračʻeay (1979) “պեղել”, in Hayerēn armatakan baṙaran [Armenian Etymological Dictionary] (in Armenian), 2nd edition, a reprint of the original 1926–1935 seven-volume edition, volume IV, Yerevan: University Press, page 72ab
* ↑ Pokorny, Julius (1959) Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 1, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, page 96
* ↑ Karst, Josef (1911) “Zur ethnischen Stellung der Armenier”, in Nersēs Akinean, editor, Huschardzan: Festschrift aus Anlass des 100-jahrigen Bestandes der Mechitaristen-Kongregation in Wien (1811–1911), und des 25. Jahrganges der philosophischen Monatsschrift Handes amsorya (1887–1911) (in German), Vienna: Mekhitarist Press, page 422,
* ↑ Bănățeanu, Vlad (1962) “Problema lexicului urartic din limba armeană [The problem of Urartian lexicon in the Armenian language]”, in Studii și cercetări lingvistice (in Romanian), volume 13, number 1, page 264 of 257–279
* ↑ Džaukjan, G. B. (1963) Урартский и индоевропейские языки [The Urartian and the Indo-European languages]‎ (in Russian), Yerevan: Academy Press, page 101
* 1 2 Greppin, John A. C. (1991) “Some effects of the Hurro-Urartian people and their languages upon the earliest Armenians”, in Journal of the American Oriental Society‎, volume 111, number 4, with additional notes by I. M. Diakonoff, pages 726b, 728b
* ↑ Fournet, Arnaud (2013) “About the Vocalic System of Armenian Words of Substratic Origin”, in Archív Orientalni‎, volume 81, number 2, page 10 of 207–222
* ↑ Martirosyan, Hrach (2017) “Notes on Anatolian loanwords in Armenian”, in Pavel S. Avetisyan and Yervand H. Grekyan, editors, Bridging Times and Spaces: Papers in Ancient Near Eastern, Mediterranean and Armenian Studies Honouring Gregory E. Areshian on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday‎, Oxford: Archaeopress, page 296 of 293–306
* 1 2 Thorsø, Rasmus (2023) Prehistoric loanwords in Armenian: Hurro-Urartian, Kartvelian, and the unclassified substrate‎, PhD dissertation, Leiden University, pages 13-14
* ↑ Greppin, John A. C. (1991) “Some effects of the Hurro-Urartian people and their languages upon the earliest Armenians”, in Journal of the American Oriental Society‎, volume 111, number 4, with additional notes by I. M. Diakonoff, page 726

### Further reading

* J̌ahukyan, Geworg (2010) “պեղել”, in Vahan Sargsyan, editor, Hayeren stugabanakan baṙaran [Armenian Etymological Dictionary] (in Armenian), Yerevan: Asoghik, page 634b
* Petrosean, Matatʻeay (1879) “պեղեմ”, in Nor Baṙagirkʻ Hay-Angliarēn [New Dictionary Armenian–English], Venice: S. Lazarus Armenian Academy