UncertainEtymology-sagaris-theWeapon

Scythian archer holding a sagaris, as depicted by the vase-painter Euphronios on an Attic red-figure neck amphora (510–500 BC, Louvre)




Hello,
today it is about SAGARIS.

Wikipedia says:

It is a weapon whose name has no clear etymology. According to wikipedia "It is a weapon with a Scythian origin"

Thanx Wikipedia! It is my part now:

Sagaris is a foreign word in Greek with an uncertain etymology.
Sagaris is a weapon, or better a single-edged ax. The other side of blade is a kind of hammer.
Look at the first pic above.

But what could it mean? SAGARIS?

I think, I can divide this word in two -> SAGAR-IS

Sagar must be the real word and the suffix -IS is the Greek ending.

Sagar could be probably than Çakar (read it like 'Chuck-are'),  a very old Turkish word with the root çak-.
'-ar' is a derivational affix.

Çakar means mot à mot "the one who can çak" 

But what does the verb çak- mean?

ÇAK- means to hit, to hammer, to nail, to ram, to pound, to beat.
All these actions you can do with this weapon.

You can hit, hammer, nail, ram, pound, beat with a çakar.

What about the word? Are there still similar words,  that we know, for that tool in Turkish language area or in Middle Asia?
The answer is: YES

In Central Asian Chagatai Language there's (was) a word called 'çakan' (meaning ax) is very similar to our çakar, definitely from the same root çak- with an other derivational affix -an.

In Persien Language there is çaku meaning jackknife.
According to Linguist Nisanyan Hindi and Mongolian have the same word with the same meaning: Çaku: jackknife (Turkish ÇAKI)

Other similar words:
Tuvan süge: ax
Yakutish sükä: ax
Mongolian Süke : ax

POSSIBLE?

Uzunbacak Adem

Scythian Warrior with Sagaris-Cakari Alan Bir Iskit Savasci.