The origin is unknown. A dialectal word that has entered the literary language. Unattested in Old or Middle Armenian. Compare Northern Kurdish pizik, pîzok, pizrik, pizrûk, bizrik, bizrok, zipik, zîpik (“pimple; pustule; boil, sore, ulcer”), Central Kurdish زیپکە (zîpke, “small boil, pimple”), Zazaki pizik, pusik, pizrike, pizruge, pisruge, pisuge, pijik, bezrik, bezriki, bizir, bizmiki, bizruki, buzriki (“pimple”). Justi compares the Kurdish to Persian پژموی (pažmuy, “pock-marked”) and Ottoman Turkish بز (bez, “a gland in the body, especially when inflamed; also, any indurated cist in the flesh”).