ատրճանակ

Etymology
Although attested only in modern texts, has a shape of classical 🇨🇬 borrowings. Ačaṙean reconstructs the classical form as, supposedly borrowed from , composed of the words for ‘fire’ (see ) and ‘to hit, strike’ (see 🇨🇬). For the suffix see. He speculates that the initial meaning was ‘device for making fire, fire-steel, flint’: compare 🇨🇬 from. From this meaning some modern author coined the sense ‘pistol’. For such a semantic development compare 🇨🇬 from. Compare also, included in a couple of dictionaries as a translation of ‘musket’, which can be a learned Armenization of , by replacing Iranian  with native.

Noun

 * 1) pistol, handgun; revolver

Usage notes

 * Ačaṙean treats /  as a mere alternative form of, but a careful study of the texts shows that  refers to a sort of long gun. Note for example the quoted passage from Inčičean, where the pair is used contrastively. It is possible that  is formed from  with the diminutive suffix .  Alternatively,  may be a back-formation from the original , where the Iranian ending was reinterpreted as the diminutive suffix.
 * The earliest attestation recorded by Ačaṙean is from 1796, but has been attested in a 1772 book: see in.