Reconstruction:Proto-Kartvelian/bard-

Ačaṙyan derives from Armenian: compare Middle Armenian բարտի (barti, “poplar”), Armenian բարդի (bardi, “poplar”), but this is denied by Klimov.

On the other hand, Starostin remarks that if the primary meaning is ‘stick’, a comparison with Proto-Northeast Caucasian *bVrVdV (“stick; axe”) is attractive. He considers the latter to be an Iranian borrowing. He adds that the influence of another Iranian root, namely *varda- (“rose”), whence also Old Armenian վարդ (vard), is also possible.

*bard-

1. undergrowth, brush, bushes

• Georgian-Zan:
  • Georgian: ბარდი (bardi, “undergrowth, brush, bushes”)
    • → Mingrelian: ბარდი (bardi, “undergrowth, brush, bushes”)
  • Mingrelian: ბურდი (burdi, “undergrowth, brush, bushes”)
• Svan: ბა̈რდ (bärd, “stalk, stem of a plant, undergrowth”)
• → Abkhaz: а-бард (ā-bārd, “thorny undergrowth, brush, bushes”)

• Klimov, G. A. (1998) Etymological Dictionary of the Kartvelian Languages (Trends in linguistics. Documentation; 16), New York, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, page 8
• penrixi (Fähnrich), hainc; sarǯvelaʒe, zurab (2000) kartvelur enata eṭimologiuri leksiḳoni [Etymological Dictionary of the Kartvelian Languages] (in Georgian), Tbilisi: Tbilisi Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani State University Press, page 95
• Fähnrich, Heinz (2007) Kartwelisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch [Kartvelian Etymological Dictionary] (Handbuch der Orientalistik; VIII.18) (in German), Leiden, Boston: Brill, page 50
• Ačaṙean, Hračʿeay (1971), “բարտի”, in Hayerēn armatakan baṙaran [Dictionary of Armenian Root Words] (in Armenian), volume I, 2nd edition, reprint of the original 1926–1935 seven-volume edition, Yerevan: University Press, page 430b
• Starostin, S. A. (2005), “*bard”, in Kartvelian etymological database compiled on the basis of G. Klimov's and Fähnrich-Sarjveladze's etymological dictionaries of Kartvelian languages