> I wonder how mav would have applied his armil rule if he had known that yarak is from Persian.
heh, prolly just as cack-handedly and arbitrarily is the answer!
My OED gives this not very definitive answer (I haven't yet had a chance to google, has anyone found anything good?):
[? ad. Pers. yQrakW power, strength, ability.]
in yarak: (of a hawk) in proper condition for hunting.
1855 Salvin & Brodrick Falc. Brit. Isles 105 The Goshawk+will not work at all unless in good temper and proper flying order, termed in the East ‘yarak’. Ibid. 108 It requires about ten days to get this Hawk into ‘yarak’. 1900 Michell Hawking xii. 162 Unless the hawk was in first-rate condition,—in what is called ‘screaming yarak’. 1901 Kipling Kim x, He's in yarak Plumed to the very point.
The Persian attribution doesn't seem completely secure - any more detail in the latest version, tsuwm?
