256 SlNO-lRANICA 



The New-Persian name for the walnut is koz and goz. 1 According 

 to HUBSCHMANN, this word comes from Armenian. 2 The Armenian word 

 is 8ngoiz; in the same category belongs Hebrew egoz, 3 Ossetic angoza, 

 Yidghal oyuza, Kurd egwz, Gruzinian nigozi.* The Persian word we 

 meet as a loan in Turkish koz and xoz. b 



The earliest designation in Chinese for the cultivated walnut is hu 

 t*ao ffl ft ("peach of the Hu" : Hu being a general term for peoples of 

 Central Asia, particularly Iranians) . As is set forth in the Introduction, 

 the term hu ip prefixed to a large number of names of cultivated plants 

 introduced from abroad. The later substitution hu or ho t'ao t^ $6 

 signifies " peach containing a kernel," or "seed-peach," so called because, 

 while resembling a peach when in the husk, only the kernel is eaten. 6 

 In view of the wide dissemination of the Persian word, the question 

 might be raised whether it would not be justifiable to recognize it also 

 in the Chinese term hu t'ao fiS ft, although, of course, in the first line it 

 means "peach of the Hu (Iranians)." There are a number of cases 

 on record where Chinese designations of foreign products may simulta- 

 neously convey a meaning and represent phonetic transcriptions. 

 When we consider that the word hu SB was formerly possessed of an 

 initial guttural sonant, being sounded *gu (?u) or *go, 7 the possibility 

 that this word might have been chosen in imitation of, or with especial 

 regard to, an Iranian form of the type goz, cannot be denied: the two- 

 fold thought that this was the "peach styled go" and the "peach of the 

 Go or Hu peoples" may have been present simultaneously in the minds 

 of those who formed the novel term; but this is merely an hypothesis, 

 which cannot actually be proved, and to which no great importance is 

 to be attached. 



1 Arabic joz; Middle Persian joz, joj. Kurd gvnz (guvnz), from govz, gdz (SociN, 

 Grundr. iran. Phil., Vol. I, pt. 2, p. 268). Sariqoll ghauz (SHAW, Journal As. Soc. 

 Bengal, 1876^.267). PuStu ughz, waghz. Another Persian designation for " walnut " 

 is girdu or girdgan. 



2 Grundr. iran. Phil., Vol. I, pt. 2, p. 8; Armen. Gram., p. 393. 

 8 Canticle vi, 10. Cf. Syriac gauza. 



4 W. MILLER, Sprache der Osseten, p. 10; HUBSCHMANN, Arm. Gram., p. 393. 



5 RADLOFF, Worterbuch der Turk-Dialecte, Vol. II, col. 628, 1710. In Osmanli 

 jeviz. 



6 The term ho t*ao is of recent date. It occurs neither under the T'ang nor 

 under the Sung. It is employed in the Kwo su ^ S, a work on garden-fruits by 

 Wan Si-mou EE tfr J|, who died in 1591, and in the Pen ts'ao kan mu. The latter 

 remarks that the word ho /^ is sounded in the north like hu ^ , and that the sub- 

 stitution thus took place, citing a work Min wu ci & $} jfe as the first to apply 

 this term. 



7 Compare Japanese go-ma $} jftc and go-fun j$ %fr . 



