Word of the day – Timsah

Timsah is the Turkish, Azeri and Kurdish word for crocodile.

The word is borrowed from Arabic word تمساح (timsāh), which in turn is borrowed from Coptic ti-msah, with ti- (tA) as the feminine definite article of Coptic and Late Egyptian. The Egyptian word for crocodile is msH, probably pronounced as *emsah in Late Egyptian.

Herodotus transcribed the Egyptian word msH as champsai (Histories, 2: 69). Champsai is also the source of the scientific name of the fish family Champsodontidae (champsai + Greek odous, teeth).