2WordsDealingWithHorse-SHAGREEN-SHABRACK

Hello from a nice March morning!

I work on 2 words of Turkish origin dealing with "horse" in many European languages.

* Shabrack
an
* Shagreen

And now our first word:

English Shabrack (or Shabraque) meaning saddlecloth is derived from Turkish "Çaprak" meaning saddlecloth, from the verb çap- to saddle. It doesn't have only a protective function but also decorative and advertising functions like membership to a clan or unit.

Polish: Czaprak,
Slavish: Чапра́к, Чeпра́к, Чапрaк, 
Swedish:  Schabrak

Two other meanings we have in German language:

Schabracke is a contemptuous word for women (We don't need here pics, I believe).

And Schabracke is word for a window deco in German (look at the pics below).

*

And now to Shagreen:

Maybe you know the book of Balzac "La Peau de chagrin", English "The Skin of Sorrow".
This French chagrin (meaning sorrow has most probably to do with the Turkish word "sağrı", a kind of rough and raw leather. (According to wikipedia: "The roughness of its texture led to the French meaning of anxiety, vexation, embarrassment, or annoyance").

But now directly to our word Shagreen:

It is a word for rough and raw leather, gained from a horse (later from other animals like stingrays, too)

Turkish word "sağrı" meaning "the rump of a horse" (and of course the sort of leather gained from that) is the original word of all European words like

Chagrin, Shagreen, Segrijn, Szagryn.

It is this rough and raw leather we take for many productions like hardback books, handle of knives, or as protecting cover for boxes, etc...

Look at these pics below (source Wikipedia):

White handle is covered with Shagreen

Like Mario Alinei said: There are many terminological words from the horse-taming and horse-riding culture of Turks in other languages.



Uzunbacak Adem