Osiris is a Latin transliteration of the Ancient Greek: Ὄσιρις, which in turn is the Greek adaptation of the original theonym in the Egyptian language. In Egyptian hieroglyphs the name is written Wsjr, as the hieroglyphic writing does not restitute all the vowels, and Egyptologists transliterate the name variously as Asar, Asari, Aser, Ausar, Ausir, Wesir, Usir, Usire or Ausare.
Several proposals have been made for the etymology and meaning of the original name Wsjr. John Gwyn Griffiths (1980) proposed a derivation from wser signifying “the powerful”. Moreover, one of the oldest attestations of the god Osiris appears in the mastaba of the deceased Netjer-wser (God Almighty).
David Lorton (1985) proposed that Wsjr is composed by the morphemes set-jret signifying “ritual activity”, Osiris being the one who receives it. Wolfhart Westendorf (1987) proposed an etymology from Waset-jret “she who bears the eye”.
A vizier, sometimes spelled vazir, vizir, vasir, wazir, vesir, or vezir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister. The Abbasid Caliphs give the name title wazir to a minister formerly called Katib (secretary) who was at first merely a helper, afterwards became the representative and successor of the Dapir (official scribe or secretary) of the Sassanian kings. In modern usage, the term has been used for ministers in the Arab world, Uzbekistan, Iran, Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India.
The word entered into English in 1562 from the Turkish vezir (“counselor”), derived from the Arabic wazir (“viceroy”). Wazir itself has two possible etymologies: The most accepted etymology is that it is derived from the Arabic wazara (“to bear a burden”), from the Semitic root W-Z-R. The word is mentioned in the Quran, where Aaron is described as the wazir (helper) of Moses, as well as the word wizr (burden) which is also derived from the same root.
On the other hand, the presence of a Middle Persian word vizīr or vicīr (meaning “a legal document” or “decision”), cognate to the Avestan vīcira, meaning “decreer” or “arbitrator”, could possibly indicate an Indo-European origin. The Roman title vicarius, which is the root of the modern English words vice- and vicar, is a cognate and has the same Indo-European origin.
It is possible that the Semitic and Iranian terms influenced one another. An even simpler possibility is that an Iranian loanword was re-interpreted as a genuine Semitic derivation by Arabs in the manner of popular etymology, which could even have led to a modification and adaptation of both form and meaning of the word by a process called folk etymology in linguistics.
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