The Tocharian A word for "rug" and Old Sinitic reconstructions

There's a Chinese character 罽 (Mandarin jì, Old Sinitic *kràts), which means "rug, carpet; woolen textile; fish net").  On the basis of its sound, meaning, place, and date of occurrence, it would seem to be related to Toch. A kratsu "rug".

This raises two questions:

1. Does this Tocharian word have cognates in other IE languages?

2. Who borrowed it from whom?   Sinitic from Tocharian or Tocharian from Sinitic?

I knew this character long ago as part of an old (medieval), disyllabic Chinese designation for Kashmir, viz., Jìbīn 罽賓.  See Paul Kroll, A Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese, p. 189b and Wiktionary.    But I think this is a transcriptional usage of the first character and semantically has nothing to do with the older (at least 100 AD) word meaning "rug", etc. that I consider to be linked somehow to the Tocharian A word.  Kroll says that the first syllable by itself means "haircloth; coarse felt".

In 2015, Hannes Fellner gave a talk at the School of Oriental and African Studies (London) that touched on this subject:

"Hannes A. Fellner (Vienna): Linguistic Contact between Indo-European and Old Chinese" (29:03)

The talk focused on Tocharian, and mentioned the question of the relationship between Old Sinitic *kràts ("rug, carpet; woolen textile; fish net") and Toch. A kratsu ("rug") (see at 19:32-20:48).  In the context of all the other evident Tocharian loanwords in Sinitic that Fellner assembles, it would appear that Toch. A kratsu ("rug") may indeed be the source of Old Sinitic *kràts ("rug, carpet; woolen textile; fish net").

Doug Adams offers the following pertinent observations:

TchA kratsu has an exact equivalent in TchB kretswe, both reflecting something like PTch *krætsäwæ or the like.  The <æ> is sort of a graphic compromise between B <e> and A <a> (I usually use *<e> however), but it has some actual phonetic support in that thus is the vowel which is used in borrowings from early Iranian into Tocharian for Proto-Iranian short /a/.  This vowel has a history in Iranian of being quite front, or æ-like, even unto Modern Persian.  Certainly the PTch form was trisyllabic, as /ts/ only develops before some sort of front vowel.

I don't have any particular insight into the meaning of the TchA word, though the most reasonable assumption is that it means much the same as the B word—all translators have agreed on that.  In B (and A) it is glossed as (Germ.) 'Lappen' or (Eng.) 'rag/piece of cloth,' and not 'rug.'  The one good example in B is: ṣamānentse yśel[mi pä]lskone tsaṅkaṃ kwipe-ike ke_uwco kaltärr-ne [sic] tu kretswesa yaṣtär '[if] sexual desires should arise to a monk and his "shame-place" stand tall and he should stimulate it with a rag' (334b2/3^E/C).  This is a text which describes various (prohibited) forms of masturbation.  One can easily imagine masturbating with a rag or piece of cloth, but surely not a rug.

If the Chinese word is related, the semantic change must be from 'piece of cloth' to 'rug' rather than vice versa.  A Navajo rug is after all a piece of cloth woven from stout yarn used as a coverlet or rug.  The history of rug itself, I believe, shows a similar semantic development.

Wiktionary:

Origin uncertain; probably of North Germanic origin, compare dialectal Norwegian rugga ("coarse coverlet"), Swedish rugg ("rough entangled hair"), from Old Norse rǫgg ("shagginess; tuft"), from Proto-Germanic *rawwō ("long wool"), related to English rag and rough.

Etymonline:

1550s, "coarse fabric," of Scandinavian origin; compare Norwegian dialectal rugga "coarse coverlet," from Old Norse rogg "shaggy tuft," from Proto-Germanic *rawwa-, perhaps related to rag (n.) and rough (adj.). Sense evolved to "coverlet, wrap" (1590s), then "mat for the floor" (1808). Meaning "toupee" is theater slang from 1940. Cut a rug "dance" is slang first attested 1942. To sweep (something) under the rug in the figurative sense is from 1954. Figurative expression pull the rug out from under (someone) "suddenly deprive of important support" is from 1936, American English. Earlier in same sense was cut the grass under (one's) feet (1580s).

The oldest surviving Chinese dictionary, Ěryǎ 爾雅 (Approaching Elegance) (circa 3rd c. BC) has the character *kràts 罽  with the apparent meaning ("[textile made of] coarse wool"), which would put it around the same time as Tocharian A kratsu and with roughly the same meaning.  The semantic drift to "rug" in both languages would have occurred in parallel fashion.

I'm writing this at 35,000 feet as I fly from Seattle to Dallas, so I do not have access to my library.  I'm hoping that earthbound colleagues will provide more precise data that will enable us to determine more definitively when the borrowing took place and in which direction.  All things considered (including importation of rug-weaving technology) at this point and from this vantage, my inclination is to opt for a borrowing from Tocharian into Sinitic during pre-Han (3rd c. BC and earlier) times, the same period as the famous borrowing of the Tocharian word for "honey" into Old Sinitic (see this post on "mead", etc.).

Readings

• "Tocharian C: its discovery and implications" (4/2/19)
• "'Tocharian C' Again: The Plot Thickens and the Mystery Deepens"
• "Tocharian, Turkic, and Old Sinitic 'ten thousand'" (4/23/19)
• "An early fourth century AD historical puzzle involving a Caucasian people in North China" (1/25/19)
• "China and Rome" (2/24/19)
• "An early fourth century AD historical puzzle involving a Caucasian people in North China" (1/25/19)
• "Of jackal and hide and Old Sinitic reconstructions" (12/16/18)
• "Of honey, bee, mead, and Old Sinitic reconstructions" (11/1/18)
• "Galactic glimmers: of milk and Old Sinitic reconstructions" (1/8/19)
• "China and Rome" (2/24/19)
• "Of reindeer and Old Sinitic reconstructions" (12/23/18)
• "Of horse riding and Old Sinitic reconstructions" (4/21/19)
• "Dung Times" (3/14/18)
• "Eurasian eureka" (9/12/16)
• "Of precious swords and Old Sinitic reconstructions" (3/8/16)
• "Of precious swords and Old Sinitic reconstructions, part 2" (3/12/16)
• "Of precious swords and Old Sinitic reconstructions, part 3" (3/16/16)
• "Of precious swords and Old Sinitic reconstructions, part 4" (3/24/16)
• "Of precious swords and Old Sinitic reconstructions, part 5" (3/28/16)
• "Of armaments and Old Sinitic reconstructions, part 6" (12/23/17)
• "Of shumai and Old Sinitic reconstructions" (7/19/16)
• "Of felt hats, feathers, macaroni, and weasels" (3/13/16)
• "Of dogs and Old Sinitic reconstructions" (3/7/18)
• "Ur-etyma: how many are there?" (7/6/14)

[Thanks to Chris Button]