Magi

==Possible loan into Chinese==
{{main|Wu (shaman)#Etymologies}}
[[File:巫-bronze.svg|thumb|upright|Chinese [[Bronzeware script]] for ''[[Wu (shaman)|wu]]'' 巫 "shaman"]]

[[Victor H. Mair]] (1990) suggested that Chinese ''[[Wu (shaman)|wū]]'' (巫 "shaman; witch, wizard; magician") may originate as a loanword from [[Old Persian]] *''maguš'' "magician; magi". Mair reconstructs an [[Old Chinese]] *''{{transl|och|m<sup>y</sup>ag}}''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mair |first=Victor H. |author-link=Victor H. Mair |date=1990 |title=Old Sinitic *Myag, Old Persian Maguš and English Magician |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23351579 |journal=Early China |volume=15 |pages=27–47 |doi=10.1017/S0362502800004995 |jstor=23351579 |s2cid=192107986 |issn=0362-5028 |via=[[JSTOR]]}}</ref> The reconstruction of Old Chinese forms is somewhat speculative. The [[velar]] final ''-g'' in Mair's *''{{transl|och|m<sup>y</sup>ag}}'' (巫) is evident in several Old Chinese reconstructions (Dong Tonghe's *''m<sup>y</sup>wag'', Zhou Fagao's *''mjwaγ'', and [[Li Fanggui]]'s *''mjag''), but not all ([[Bernhard Karlgren]]'s *''m<sup>y</sup>wo'' and Axel Schuessler's *''ma'').

Mair adduces the discovery of two figurines with unmistakably Caucasoid or Europoid features dated to the 8th century BC, found in a 1980 excavation of a [[Zhou Dynasty]] palace in [[Fufeng County]], [[Shaanxi]] Province. One of the figurines is marked on the top of its head with an incised '''☩''' graph.{{Citation needed|date=March 2023}}

Mair's suggestion is based on a proposal by [[Jao Tsung-I]] (1990), which connects the "[[cross potent]]" [[bronzeware script]] glyph for ''wu'' 巫 with the same shape found in Neolithic West Asia, specifically a cross potent carved in the shoulder of a goddess figure of the [[Halaf period]].<ref>''Ming-pao yueh-kan'' 25.9 (September 1990). English translation: [http://sino-platonic.org/complete/spp026_silk_road_writing.pdf Questions on the Origin of Writing Raised by the 'Silk Road'], Sino-Platonic Papers, 26 (September, 1991).</ref>