An unnoticed Persian loan in Greek? Gr. Συρικόν - Fā. surḫ.

The name of a red pigment συρικόν, syricum, often confused in the manuscript tradition with the adjective σηρικός, “silky”, is traditionally understood as an ethnic referring to the origin of this material from Phoenicia, cf. the plausible synonym Φοινίκεος, Puniceus. Rejecting the obvious paretymology, the article proposes to interpret the term as a loanword from the Persian word designating the same pigment.