defter, daftar etc.

From: Nikos Sarantakos (sarant_at_lu.coditel.net)
Date: 01/30/05 

Date: 30 Jan 2005 14:55:33 -0800

The origin of this vocable seems to be
the Greek diphthera, meaning "skin, parchment".
The word has spread through Persian and Arabic
into Turkish and Hindu. For instance, defterdar
was the title of various high officers under
the Ottoman Empire, daftar is "record, office"
in Persian and defter as I see thanks to Google
in the Jewish Encyclo. is a sort of manual
containing prayers in the Samaritans. In modern
Greek, tefteri or defteri is a back-loan from
Turkish, meaning a notepad, a bundle of sheets.

Herodot says that the Ionians used to write on
skins (diphtheras) and they still call diphtheras
the rolls of papyrus (5.58)

More interestingly, Ctesias the Knidian lived 17 years in the Persian
king's court, where he drew material for his history "from the
Royal Archives, where the Persians had entered past deeds according to
some law". The word he is using for
Royal Archives is "Basilikai Diphtherai".

Now, the Islamic Encyclopedia (French edition)
says that the word also appears in pre-christian
aramaic jewish texts and it adds that according
to Arab testimonies the word came to Arabic via Persian
and that some scholars have
attempted, not with great success, to derive the
word from some Persian root meaning "to write"
(whence also dabir, diwan).
Has anyone any clue about this eventual Persian
origin?