A NEW ETYMOLOGY FOR THE SARMATIANS

There are several proposed etymologies for the ethnic name Sarmatae (or Sauromatae, etc.).  I did not find any of them really satisfying.  For those who are curious about the established (or maligned) alternatives, I urge you to research the question on your own.

For me, the defining characteristic of the Sarmatians has always been their full-body armor.  They are referred to as cataphracts in the early sources, in fact (see https://www.academia.edu/28156928/Sarmatian_Armour_According_to_Narrative_and_Archaeological_Data). They covered themselves and their horses with scale armor made of various materials.

Let us, then, look at the word cataphract.

History and Etymology for cataphract (from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cataphract):

Latin cataphractes, from Greek kataphraktēs, from kataphraktos covered, armored, from kataphrassein to protect, fortify, from kata- cata- + phrassein to enclose

NOTE:  kata- cata- is an intensifying prefix meaning "fully, completely" plus φρακτός "covered, protected", respectively from φράσσω "to cover, to protect"

Now we can go the sar1, found in Prof. Dr. Johnny Cheung's https://www.bulgari-istoria-2010.com/Rechnici/Cheng_Iran_d.pdf:

*sar1 ‘to conceal, hide’ •AVESTAN: ? OAv. sar- ‘shelter’ (Y 41.6) •MIDDLE PERSIAN: MMP s’rw’r ‘helmet’ (< *sra-bra-) DMMPP: 306a •PARTHIAN: s’rw’r ‘helmet’ DMMPP: 306a •KHOTANESE: ◊ Khot. śaraima ‘covering’ (KT2 47,5), cited by Bailey (DKS: 395b), does not exist: śaraima is to be interpreted as śarai ma. •SOGDIAN: SSogd. sr’kh ‘head covering’ (Livšic 1962: 183) •NWIR: (+ prev. *?) ? Kurd. (Sor.) šrdinawa, Awrom. šr/y/šr- ‘to hide [tr.]’ || (+ *ham-) ? Kurd. (Sor.) hašr ‘ambush, refuge’ (MacKenzie 1979: 526) •NEIR: Sh. sUr-/sUrd, Rosh. sōr-/sērt, sōrt, Sariq. sur-/sord, Yzgh. sar-/sard ‘to creep, steal, sneak up to, lie in ambush, spy upon’, Ishk. sur-/surd ‘to creep, slink, sneak’ || (+ *ni-) Wa. nisr(ы)v-/nisrovd ‘to look closely, spy upon’ •SANSKRIT: śárman- (n.) ‘cover, protection, shelter, refuge’ (RV+) EWAia II: 620 •PIE *Qel- ‘to conceal, hide, cover’ LIV: 322 f. | Pok.: 553 336 *sar2 •IE COGNATES: Lat. cēlre ‘to conceal from view, by disguise’, OIrish celim ‘I conceal’, Goth. huljan ‘to cover, conceal’, OHG helan ‘to hide’, OHG helm, Engl. helmet •REFERENCES: MacKenzie 1966: 109; EVS: 75a; Asatrian – Livshits: 92; Werba 1997: 241 f.

And from
https://www.academia.edu/13033050/Cheung2015-Review_Hintze_A_Zoroastrian_Liturgy_-_BiOr_LXXII_1-2:

The most important of the words cited by Cheung is Khotanese śaraima or, rather, sarai ma.  He is alluding to H. W. Bailey's DICTIONARY OF KHOTAN SAGA:

Bailey's own theory on the root at the heart of the ethnonym Sarmatae was different, of course. I here quote from that author's Indo-Scythian Studies: Being Khotanese Texts, Cambridge University Press, 1985, p. 65, where Avestan sairima:

However, in Bailey's Khotan Saka dictionary (https://www.bulgari-istoria-2010.com/Rechnici/Dictionary_Khotan_saka.pdf), we see several references to zar- (the s- with a diacritical mark over it of Khotan Saka is dialectal for s- in Western Iranian sar-, 'to cover').  This base is found in words that actually have the meaning of  'protective armour':

I would propose, therefore, that we see in the Sarmatae 'the covered or protected ones', a clear and certain reference to their military apparel. 

Sarmatian cataphract from Trajan's Column 

(Scene 37)

Armored Sarmatian horse with ocular shield

Sarmatian cavalry, displaying total armor coverage

Less likely, and quite a bit less romantic, is the possibility that they were 'sheltered' in the sense that they lived in tents.  Yet we are told that they did so in the early Classic sources.  For example, in Strabo's GEOGRAPHY 7.3.17:

"As for the Nomads, their tents, made of felt, are fastened on the wagons in which they spend their lives."

And according to Hippocrates (http://classics.mit.edu/Hippocrates/airwatpl.18.18.html):

"There live those Scythians which are called Nomads, because they have no houses, but live in wagons. The smallest of these wagons have four wheels, but some have six; they are covered in with felt, and they are constructed in the manner of houses, some having but a single apartment, and some three; they are proof against rain, snow, and winds."

Ammianus (2:18) says of the closely related Alans:

"They use wagons covered with a curved bark... what one might call their mobile towns upon their vehicles... In these wagons the males couple with the women and their children are born and reared; in fact, these wagons are their permanent dwellings and, wherever they go, they look upon them as their ancestral home."

Wagon based on clay models found in kurgans

(this and following image coutesy Scythia-Artorius Exhibit)

Wagon found disassembled in a kurgan

The irony does not escape me that in viewing the fully armored Sarmatae as the 'covered ones' we are somewhat duplicating the now discredited notion that the Greek-influenced form Sauromatae pointed to a meaning to be derived from Greek σαύρα, 'saura', "lizard."  This idea harkened back to a reference in Pausanias' DESCRIPTION OF GREECE [1.21.6]:

"Their breastplates [thōrakes] they make in the following way. Each man keeps many mares, since the land is not divided [merizein] into allotments [klēroi], nor does it bear anything except wild trees, as the people are nomads. These mares they not only use for war, but they also sacrifice [thuein] them to the local [epikhōroioi] gods [theoi] and eat them for food. Their hooves they collect, clean, split, and make from them as it were scales of serpents [drakontes]. Whoever has never seen a serpent [drakōn] must at least have seen a pine-cone still green. He will not be mistaken if he likens the product from the hoof to the segments that are seen on the pine-cone. These pieces they bore and stitch together with the sinews of horses and oxen, and then use them as breastplates [thōrakes] that are as beautiful and strong as those of the Greeks [Hellēnes]. For they can withstand blows of missiles or when struck in close combat."

- https://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/6768

Everyone should realize that my proposed reading of Sarmatae as 'the enclosed/protected ones' is merely one theory among many.  In the words of Professor John Colarussa, "The speculation about the sources of the ethnonyms of the old Central Asian hordes is a small industry."

NOTE:  I'm in basic agreement with Prof. Colarussa about the most probable etymology for the Iazyges, the tribal name of those Sarmatians most scholars agree were the ones relocated to Britain.  He has:

Iazyges ≤ Iranian root yaz- ‘to worship’, in Gathic yazata ‘worshipped’, Sassanian

Yazd(e)gerd “made by God”, Farsi Yazd, Yezidi; so “pious ones”

But I did ask him if instead we could have something like the sacred ones instead of pious ones, as in 'holy warriors.'  He responded that either interpretation might work.