bottargan.

Etymology: Originally < (i) Italian †botargo (1503 or earlier), †botarga (1508 or earlier), bottarga (1564 or earlier), †buttarga (1576 or earlier; perhaps 15th cent. as †buttagra ; for the further etymology, see below); in forms botargue, boutargue immediately < (ii) French boutargue (1534 in Middle French), †botargue (1554) < Occitan botarga (although this is apparently first attested later: 1723 as poutargo) < Italian; compare Middle French bottargue (1441 in an apparently isolated attestation, apparently directly < Italian).Ulterior etymology of the Italian noun. The Italian noun is probably either directly or ultimately < Byzantine Greek ἀβγοτάριχα , ἀβγοτάραχα (probably 12th cent.), variant of the plural of ᾠοτάριχον bottarga (11th or 12th cent.; modern Greek αβγοτάραχο , αβγοτάριχο ), ultimately < ancient Greek ᾠό- (see oo- comb. form) + τάριχος meat preserved by pickling or smoking, dried or smoked fish (of unknown origin; probably a loanword). However, it is unclear why the Italian form shows an initial /b/ whereas Greek β was pronounced /v/ from Hellenistic Greek onwards. Arabic buṭarḵah preserved mullet roe (plural buṭāriḵ, (Egypt) baṭāriḵ, whence perhaps Italian †bottariche, plural noun (a1547)) ultimately reflects a Greek compound of the same elements, and may have been the immediate intermediary in the transmission from Greek into Italian, especially in view of the fact that Arabic lacks the phoneme /v/ and may have substituted /b/ for it. For full discussion of the further etymology of this word see D. J. Georgacas Ichthyological Terms for the Sturgeon and Etymology of the International Terms Botargo, Caviar and Congeners (1978), especially pp. 170–8, and J. P. Hughes & R. G. Wasson, ‘The Etymology of “Botargo”’, in Amer. Jrnl. Phil. (1947) 68 414–8. Specific forms. With forms in p- compare French †poutargue (1657 or earlier), †potargue (1689 or earlier); Italian forms with initial p- (now regional) do not appear to be attested until later (early 18th cent.).