The Etymology of the Kurdish (chesht چیشت ) Food

The Kurdish word for food chesht چیشت  goes back to Iranian (chash) meaning drip/drink/eat. There is nothing strange about this etymology as Kurdish still uses the same verb خواردن for drinking and eating so you can say ئاو / نان بخو eat/drink water/bread.

The Iranian (chash) is in turn derived from Middle Persian /Pahlawi (xsh) meaning (let taste) and (chsht) meal - compare Persian chashidan  چشیدن to taste. Chash or kash can also be found in Kurdish words such as peshkash پیش که ش to offer. Kurdish has obviously abandoned (chash) taste for no clear reasons and substituted it by  تام from Arabic طعم taste.

Dr. Jamshid Ibrahim

Bremen, 18 August 2016