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]

1) annals, historical annals, recorded annals, chronicles, historical chronicles, recorded chronicles, records, historical records; 2) record books, documents, historical documents, catalogs, historical catalogs, catalog of records, registers, historical registers, recorded registers, listings, historical listings, recorded listings; 3) books, scrolls. Borrowed from Persian دفتر‎ (daftar), meaning "register", "account book" or "notebook", ultimately from Ancient Greek διφθέρᾱ (diphthérā, “parchment”). There is also an irregular spelling with གཏེར (deb gter) based on a 'folk etymology' connecting it to the meaning "treasure", due to the accidental similarity of the the Persian-Greek -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]