jackal
JAK-uhl · noun
Origin
English borrowed jackal from French chacal (also spelled chacale, checale, schakal, ciacale), which came from Turkish çakal, itself from Ottoman Turkish چقال (çakâl). That word traces back to Classical Persian شغال (šaġāl), borrowed from Sanskrit शृगाल (śṛgāla), an alternative form of सृगाल (sṛgāla).
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Journey
The word simply named the animal at every stage — a jackal in Sanskrit, Persian, Ottoman Turkish, Turkish, and French all point to the same creature, with no recorded shift in meaning along the way.
Related words
The many French spellings (chacal, chacale, checale, schakal, ciacale) show scribes and speakers wrestling to capture a foreign sound before English settled on jackal.
More words
From Turkish