deb ther

annal, chronicle, records, documents, records, catalogues, registers, lists, books [RY]

annals, chronicle, records, documents, records, catalogues, registers, lists, books [IW]

register, documents, catalogues, anything recorded in writing or stitched together [JV]

historical book, annals [RY]

Annals, historical annals, literary annals, chronicles, historical chronicles, records, record books, documents, catalogs, registers, listings, books. Borrowed from Persian دفتر‎ (daftar), ultimately from Ancient Greek διφθέρᾱ (diphthérā, “parchment”). There is also an irregular spelling with གཏེར (deb gter) which is based on a 'folk etymology' connecting it to the meaning "treasure", due to the similarity of the the Persian-Greek words tar/thérā with the Tibetan word. Thus it appears that this Greco-Persian etymology is also the origin of deb, the main Tibetan word for "book", as the monosyllabic deb is derived from the longer word deb ther. [Erick Tsiknopoulos]