etymological insanity

I've been completely revamping my C-a dictionary,
adding pronunciations, adding to the html coding and,
most annoying by far, going back and documenting
etymologies.

Many of my words are well documented in little
notebooks of spices or body parts or fruits or animals
or whatnot, but a few are really frustrating to track
down.  Where DID I come up with some of these
words?!?!

Sometimes all I have to go on is the vaguest memory
that I used a Semitic root, or a Gothic root or
what-have-you.  Then I have to figure out how many
different "originals" could have given the C-a result
and then go hunting through any number of
dictionaries.  Eventually I find them.

But now I've come up with a word I have no
recollection of coining -- chirgada.  It means
"checkers", as in the game.  But I have no idea where
this word came form.  I've checked my note book on
games which shows all the Romlangs having some variant
of "dama".  I've checked all my Arabic dictionaries
and none of them even *have* checkers so it couldn't
be that.  I can't believe I found a Punic root for
THAT.  I can't find the Greek so I doubt that was the
origin.

I have temporarily removed _chirgada_ from the
dictionary and replaced it with _dama_ borrowed from
Italian.  While I'm okay with this change not knowing
where my other word came from bugs the snot out of me.
 Any ideas what I was thinking when I coined
_chirgada_?

Adam

=====
Il prori ul pa雝veju fi dji atexindu mutu madji
fached. -- Carrajena proverb

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