From: Rick McCallister Message: 70053 Date: 2012-09-12
An odd possibility is that it may a "barbarismo" like English "often" and Spanish "septiembre" where <t> used to be only etymological and is now pronouncing it becoming the norm
DRAE gives the following for Spanish.
It could be from arpar, which may have been pronounced by some as /harpar/ and written as <farpar>, such spellings were common in Medieval Spanish. Portuguese may have taken Spanish initial <f-> (originally /h/, then silent) as /f-/. Just an idea
1.f. Cada una de las puntas agudas que quedan al hacer una o varias escotaduras en el borde de algunas cosas, como las banderas, los estandartes, los planos de veleta, etc.
From: Joao S. Lopes <josimo70@...> To: Cybalist <cybalist@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2012 10:11 PM Subject: [tied] Portuguese farpa "barb" < *bHardHa?
Portuguese <farpa> means "barb", as in <arame farpado>, "barbed wire". Could be <farpa> related to barba "beard"? Usual etymologies consider it as from Arabian or Germanic.