լավաշ

A dialectal word, unattested in Old or Middle Armenian. Related to synonymous Middle Armenian լաւշ (lawš) / լօշ (lōš), whence լոշ (loš). The same word is found in neighbouring languages: Persian لواش (lavâš), Talysh ləvoş, Georgian ლავაში (lavaši), Turkish lavaş, dialectal loş (Malatya), Azerbaijani lavaş, Turkmen lawaş, Tatar ләвәш (läwäş), Northern Kurdish lewaş, loş, lûşe, Central Kurdish لەواشە (lewaşe), Zazaki levaş, lewaş, lawaşe, lebaş, lebaşe, lebaşi, labaş, labaşe, lavaşi, all referring to types of flat bread. Some of these may be borrowed from Armenian. Lavash is usually considered an Armenian bread. Ačaṙean reports that in Tehran it is called نان ارمنی (nân-e armani, literally “Armenian bread”). Almost certainly ultimately of Semitic origin: compare Samaritan Aramaic ࠋࠅࠔ (lwš /⁠lūš⁠/, “dough”), Aramaic לַיְשָׁא / לֵישָׁא (layšā, lēšā, “dough”), Classical Syriac ܠܝܫܐ (layšā, “lump of dough”), Akkadian 𒇷𒄿𒋙 (/⁠līšu⁠/, “dough, paste”), Biblical Hebrew לַיִשׁ (láyiš, “dough”), and particularly Assyrian Neo-Aramaic ܠܵܘܵܫܵܐ (lāwāšā, “a flap of thin bread”), Hulaulá lawaša (“long pitta bread”), Lishán Didán lawaša, lwaša (“flat thin cake of bread”), plausibly also Punic 𐤋𐤅𐤕 (lawāṯ (uncertain quantities), “Etruscan honeysuckle”) due to its wound petals, all from a verb Proto-Semitic *lawaṯ- (“to wind, to wallow”) which means in the Aramaic languages “to knead”.