فصفص

Borrowed from Aramaic אַסְפַּסְתָּא (ʾaspastā) / ܐܰܣܦܷܣܬܳܐ (ʾaspestā, “lucerne”), from Akkadian 𒊍𒉺𒊍𒋾 (aspastu, “presumably lucerne”), from Old Median *aspāstiš (“lucerne”), from Proto-Iranian *HacwaHastiš (“lucerne”, literally “horse-food”) from Proto-Iranian *Hácwah (“horse”) + Proto-Indo-European *h₁ed- (“related to eating”) +‎ *-tis, the Assyrians having it borrowed when modelling their cavalry after the Medes and thus taking over this name for a plant serving as horsefood, passing it to the Babylonian. So the most likely chain.

فَصْفَص or فِصْفِص • (faṣfaṣ or fiṣfiṣ) m (collective, singulative فَصْفَصَة f (faṣfaṣa) or فِصْفِصَة (fiṣfiṣa), plural فَصَافِص (faṣāfiṣ))

1. lucerne, alfalfa (Medicago sativa and its produce)

   Synonyms: رَطْبَة (raṭba), بِرْسِيم حِجَازِيّ (birsīm ḥijāziyy)

• → Catalan: alfals
• → Portuguese: alfafa
• → Spanish: alfalfa, alfalfez
  • → English: alfalfa
    • → Irish: alfalfa
    • → Welsh: alffalffa
  • → Italian: alfalfa

• “ˀspstˀ”, in The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1986–
• “aspastu”, in The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (CAD)‎, volume 1, A, part 1, Chicago: University of Chicago Oriental Institute, 1964, pages 338–339
• Dandamayev, Muhammad A. (1992) Iranians in Achaemenid Babylonia (Columbia Lectures on Iranian Studies; 6), Costa Mesa, California, New York: Mazda Publishers in association with Bibliotheca Persica, →ISBN, pages 16–17
• Dozy, Reinhart Pieter Anne (1881) “فصفص”, in Supplément aux dictionnaires arabes‎ (in French), volume 1, Leiden: E. J. Brill, page 271
• Fraenkel, Siegmund (1880) De vocabulis in antiquis Arabum carminibus et in Corano peregrinis‎ (in Latin), Leiden: E. J. Brill, page 10
• Freytag, Georg (1835) “فصفص”, in Lexicon arabico-latinum praesertim ex Djeuharii Firuzabadiique et aliorum Arabum operibus adhibitis Golii quoque et aliorum libris confectum‎ (in Latin), volume 3, Halle: C. A. Schwetschke, page 352
• Lane, Edward William (1863) “فصفص”, in Arabic-English Lexicon‎, London: Williams & Norgate, page 2403
• Laufer, Berthold (1919) Sino-Iranica: Chinese contributions to the history of civilization in ancient Iran, with special reference to the history of cultivated plants and products (Fieldiana, Anthropology; 15), volume 3, Chicago: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, pages 208–219
• Löw, Immanuel (1924) Die Flora der Juden‎ (in German), volume 2, Wien und Leipzig: R. Löwit, pages 463–464
• Zimmern, Heinrich (1915) Akkadische Fremdwörter als Beweis für babylonischen Kultureinfluss (in German), Leipzig: A. Edelmann, page 56