кемпірқосақ

Kazakh

Alternative scripts

Arabic	كەمپىرقوساق
Cyrillic	кемпірқосақ
Latin	kempırqosaq

Etymology

Usually considered to be from Persian کمر (kamar, “arch”) +‎ Arabic (قَوْس) قُزَح ((qaws) quzaḥ, “rainbow”). The word was then reanalyzed and reshaped as кемпір (kempir, “grandma”) +‎ қосақ (qosaq, “a yoke for goats or sheep”) due to the folk etymology.

However, note similar formations in Turkic languages: Kyrgyz жез кемпирдин көгөнү (jez kempirdin kögönü, literally “the copper grandma's (sheep/goat) yoke”), көк желе (kök jele, literally “sky yoke”), Nogai куртка шаш койын яйды (kurtka şaş koyın yaydı, “a rainbow appeared”, literally “the old woman led her sheep out to pasture”). Shoqan Walikhanov notes that in Kazakh mythology, a rainbow is a yoke of multi-colored sheep which an old woman milks after rainfall.

Noun

кемпірқосақ • (kempirqosaq)

1. rainbow