Edgar Allan Poe, To HelenLo! in yon brilliant window-nicheHow statue-like I see thee stand,The agate lamp within thy hand!Ah, Psyche, from the regions whichAre Holy-Land!
The first etymology suggested for Tocharian B patstsÄá¹ k and Tocharian A pÄtsaá¹ k âwindowâ was made by Poucha (1939: 216). He proposed that these two words derive from an earlier Chinese form related to âNorthern Chineseâ bÅlà (ç»ç) chÅ«ang (çª) (transcription adapted) âwindowâ (with the element bÅlà âglassâ). More precisely he suggested they go back to Old Chinese âpâuâ-á¹á¹£âÃ¥ngâ âGlas-Fensterâ. Poucha admits that this collocation so far is not found in Old Chinese literature, and ends by saying that this is an important etymology, as it would indicate knowledge of glass windows among Tocharians.
Pouchaâs etymology unfortunately does not work on the phonetic level, and is very unlikely from a historical point of view. Glass-windows appeared rather late in Asia, and they came from the West. In Eastern Asia, windows were in general filled with paper (cf. Encyclopedia Britannica online, s.v. window).1 Phonetically there is no way to obtain âts- from *âÄ- in Chinese. If from Chinese, one would expect âts- to reflect Chinese âtsâ, as in TB á¹£itsok âmillet alcoholâ (see p. 220); TB yÄmuttse âparrotâ and TA yÄmutsi, see Appendix 1. Because glass-windows were imported from the West, the Tocharians, had they acquired them, should have borrowed their word for it from a Western language rather than from Chinese.
Another proposal which has been made concerning the words TB patstsÄá¹ k, TA pÄtsaá¹ k is found in Wilkensâs Handwörterbuch des Altuigurischen (Wilkens 2021). In it, Wilkens suggests (2021: 548) that it is a cognate of Old Uyghur paÄiÅ âfenceâ, from Chinese ç¸å ba cheng, Late Middle Chinese paË ÊɦiajÅ. The Chinese word (bÄchéng) means âstockadeâ. This etymology is very difficult to accept, notably because of the semantic difference between a stockade and a window. Besides, I do not understand how it would work phonetically.
Isebaert (1980: 50â51) proposed that Tocharian B patstsÄá¹ k and Tocharian A pÄtsaá¹ k go back to a single proto-form, itself going back to Middle Iranian *patihÄng < *pati-frÄnakaâ. This derivation is commonly accepted (cf. DTB: 388; DToA: 274), but it is phonetically impossible, as only Proto-Indo-European *ti yields Tocharian ts, and even Old Steppe Iranian *âti- only yields Proto-Tocharian *tÉ (cf. *abÃ-stH-(i)i̯a- > *abÃ-sti-i̯a- > PT *epÉÌstÉye). This proto-form of Isebaertâs would not explain the gemination in Tocharian B either, which gemination might be old.
This proposal of Isebaertâs is motivated by the Armenian word patowhan âwindowâ, deriving from *pati-frÄna- âouverture dâaérationâ (cf. Benveniste 1957â1958: 63â64). The Armenian word obviously derives from a Middle Iranian source which underwent the *âfr- > *âhr- sound change (preserved in dialectal forms: Agulis ptÉÌrhan, ÅarabaÅ ptá¹han, cf. Martirosyan, summer school class, Leiden 2019). Martirosyan (idem) proposes thus a proto-form *paturhan, simplified within Armenian. Possibly the Classical Armenian form is a direct loan from a later stage of the Iranian language form (*patÇhÄn?). Tremblay (2005: 435) goes even further than Isebaert, and proposes that the Tocharian words directly derive from specifically Parthian *patihÄn.
A further problem with this Iranian derivation, apart from the impossiblity to explain the âts(ts)- found in Tocharian, resides in the length of the vowels. Tocharian B does not reveal anything concerning the length of the *a in this word, other than that the second syllable was accented, but Tocharian A could show that the second *a is short (cf. Schwartz 1974: 406). Possibly, this means that the Iranian form these words go toâif there is anyâshould be *pÄÌtsang or *pÄÌdzang. Of course, one could easily object that an original TA *pÄtsÄá¹ k or *patsÄá¹ k, if borrowed early enough, could have been shortened into pÄtsaá¹ k (Krause & Thomas 1960: 45â¯f.). An internal Tocharian argument, however, cannot be invoked to explain away the âts(ts)â.
I propose that this word is actually of Bactrian origin. In favor of this hypothesis: 1. the sequence âts- is very common in Bactrian (it derives from an earlier *Ä, *tVs, *tVÄ, and maybe *Ç°). 2. The âaá¹
k ending of Tocharian usually corresponds to the Bactrian ending â
A possible source of this word should be an etymon *pÄta- âprotected byâ or *pÄti- âagainstâ + *Äanakaâ. Semantically, it seems very difficult since *Äanah- means âpleasureâ. One could perhaps also think of *pÄti-ÄsÄnaka- âagainst (= towards/opposite to) the (sun)riseâ, implying that windows are placed in the direction of the sun. The phonetics would thus be *pÄti-ÄsÄnaka-Â > Bactrian *
As the above suggestions are unconvincing, I would like to suggest another option, which might sound surprising at first. In my view, the Tocharian words discussed above derive from a Middle Iranian reflex of PIr. *pÄti-Ç°anaka- âonto (= for) murderâ. There exists at least two parallels for such an etymology.
First, in French une meurtrière âmurderer (fem.)â is a type of window found in strongholds, castles, defensive walls and structures, precisely called as such because one can use it to kill without being killed. In English, this type of window is called arrowslit but also loophole: it is a narrow but long window, large enough for arrows to be shot out of.
Second, in Latin, fenestra which later became French fenêtre, German Fenster âwindowâ originally meant âtrou pratiqué dans une paroi, meurtrièreâ in Latin (Ernout & Meillet 1967: 225) then took on the meaning âwindowâ not only in Romance languages but also in Latin itself.
Of course, this etymology is speculative to an extent, but one might wonder if such a word did not exist in Bactrian as well. Indeed: arrowslits were found in citadels in Bactria (e.g. Zadiyan Qala, cf. de la Vaissière, Marquis & al. 2015: 246, 250; Shaydullaev 2011: 95). Bactrian loopholes varied in size, in Bactria they were 20â¯cm wide, equally wide throughout the wall; in Kampyrtepa their size varies from 15 to 30â¯cm (Shaydullaev 2011: 954). From Shaydullaevâs drawing of the last remaining loophole of Jandavlattepa (Shaydullaev 2011: 95 fig. 2.2., 4) one can see that it was constituted of two upper bricks put against together in a triangular shape, with 22â¯cm width at the basis, and below, bricks facing each other with again some width in between (âa loophole in the shape of an arrowâ as per Shaydullaevâs own words). This shape reminds one of early European church and castle windows, with the only difference that these were wider.
The Bactrian reflex of *pÄti-Ç°anaka-,*
In conclusion, there is no clear, evident etymology for Tocharian B patstsÄá¹
k, Tocharian A pÄtsaá¹
k âwindowâ. In any case, Isebaertâs etymology from Middle Iranian *patihÄng, also found in Tremblay (2005: 435) cannot be upheld. The word has a seemingly Bactrian appearance, containing probably the Bactrian suffix â
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