խրուկ

Ghost word. Learned borrowing from Middle Armenian խրուկ (xruk, “a kind of herb”), misunderstanding its meaning.

• (Eastern Armenian) IPA^(key): /χəˈɾuk/,
• (Western Armenian) IPA^(key): /χəˈɾuɡ/,

խրուկ • (xruk) (obsolete)

1. cinnabar (mineral)

   Synonym: կինաբար (kinabar)

Borrowed from Persian خروک (xarūk, “name of a herb which increases women's milk”).^[1]

խրուկ • (xruk)

1. whitetop (Lepidium draba) or clasping pepperweed (Lepidium perfoliatum)
   • 9th or 10th century, with changes and additions in later centuries, Tʻargmanutʻiwn dełocʻ zor əntrel en imastasērkʻn ew kargeal yayl lezuacʻ  :^[2]

     կունաբրէն = խրուկ

     kunabrēn = xruk

     the قُنَابَرَى (qunābarā) = xruk

   • 6th–12th? centuries, Baṙkʻ Gałianosi  :^[3]

     գունապրէ (var. գունապէ) = խրուկ (var. կրուկ, խիրուկ, խրւուկ)

     gunaprē (var. gunapē) = xruk (var. kruk, xiruk, xrwuk)

     قُنَابَرَى (qunābarā) = xruk

Attested only in two medieval glossaries, translating կունաբրէ-ն (kunabrē-n), գունապրէ (gunaprē), Armenian-script renderings of Arabic قُنَابَرَى (qunābarā) or its Aramaic etymon, which modern dictionaries confused with the similar-sounding Ancient Greek κιννάβαρι (kinnábari) and therefore understood խրուկ (xruk) to mean the mineral cinnabar.^[4][5][6][7] However, that identification is incorrect; Middle Armenian խրուկ (xruk) like its modern dialectal descendant խռուկ (xṙuk) refers to a certain herb,^[8] just like Arabic قُنَابَرَى (qunābarā).

• Armenian: > խռուկ (xṙuk) (inherited), → խրուկ (xruk) (learned)

• Ačaṙean, Hračʻeay (1973) “խրուկ”, in Hayerēn armatakan baṙaran [Armenian Etymological Dictionary] (in Armenian), 2nd edition, a reprint of the original 1926–1935 seven-volume edition, volume II, Yerevan: University Press, page 432a
• Greppin, John A. C. (1992) “ON ARABIC QUNĀBARÀ AND GREEK ΚΙΝΝΑΒΑΡΙ(Σ)”, in Byzantion‎, volume 62, pages 259–260