?F borsmuk (?p-) ‘a badger’. In this form the word occurs only in Kaş., where it appears in a chapter devoted to Dissyllables containing three consecutive consonants, but is misvocalized. Its form is quite un-Turkish and it is almost certainly a l.-w., perhaps fr. Tokharian where the initial would necessarily have been p-. S.i.a.m.l.g., see Shcherbak, p. 139. An unusually large number of modern forms start w. p- including NE Khak. porsıx: NW Kk. porsık, Kumyk porsuk: SW Az. porsuğ; Osm. porsuk. The aberrant Tkm. form torsık also has an unvoiced initial. These are all consistent w. the theory that it is a l.-w. w. initial p-, and so suggest that the modern V. borsı-/porsı- ‘to smell foul’ is a back-formation fr. this word and not its origin. A l.-w. in Pe. and other languages, see Doerfer II 733. Xak. xi borsmuk (vocalized borsumajuk) duwaybba mitlu'l-wark (sic), wa bihi yudrabu'l-matal fi’l-siman ‘a small animal like the ?, used as a metaphor for fatness’ Kaş. III 417 (al-wark means ‘hip-bone’ and seems to be corrupt, perhaps read al-wabr ‘marmot’, al-zuaral ‘large venemous lizard’, or al-wadak which properly means ‘fat’ but may also have been used as the name of some fat animal): Çağ. xv ff. porsuk (so spelt) ‘an animal called in Pe. rūdak (‘an animal found in Tartary of whose skin fur garments are made’ Steingass), in Isfahāni (VU) xūxra and in Ar. (VU) waşaq and ibn 'irs (normally ‘weasel’); it is about the size of a small dog and has black and white stripes on its face and parts of its skin; they make fur garments of its skin; whenever they kill it, it is fat, and so long as it has not eaten carrion its flesh is wholesome food; two mitqal's of its flesh, salted, are a protection against unwholesome airs, and garments made of its fur beneficial in cases of gout, painful joints, and palsy’ San. 132v. 22 (clearly ‘badger’; xūxra and waşaq are unidentified): Oğuz xi (after Xak.) the Oğuz omit the -m- and call it borsuk; but they insert -m- in başmak ‘shoe’ (al-midās), which the Turks call başak Kaş. III 417: Kip. xiv borsuk ‘an animal like al-dabu (the hyaena) with a foul smell’ Id. 29; al-nims ‘weasel, ferret, mongoose’ (küzen/) borsuk Bui. 10, 9.
AH. MA. osm. blk. krč. kzk. borsuk, mtü. (oγuz) borsuk (Br. bursuk, bursumak), osm. oir. usw. porsuk ‘Dachs’, leb. porsok, hak. porsyχ, kaz. bursyk, kyz. moršyγ, soj. morzuk, leb. morsyk, čuv. porăš, purăš (> ung. borz ‘Dachs’, s. BTLU 52, Palló, UAJ 31: 245; russ. барсук; kalm. KWb. 52 bors°G id.) < bor ‘grau’