In Palyan & Peltekian 2025 paper about Mushki we proposed a theory that the name of Mushki was the source of Paleobalkanic word *musk meaning mule.

 
This word is present in Albanian, some Romanian dialects and Slavic languages.

We didn't go deep in details to provide more arguments for this theory. Just mentioned archaeological and paleogenetic data arguing for Anatolian and western parts of historic Armenia as the homeland of mules. Mule is a mixture of donkey and horse. Current genetic data favors northeast Africa as the homeland of domesticated donkey while Yamnaya as the homeland of domesticated horses. The meeting point of this two domesticated animals might be somewhere between this two locations and Armenia with Anatolia are excellent candidates where donesticated donkey and horse had occasion to meet each other to create mule. Later humans must have noticed the usefulness of mule and started to breed it deliberately.

Here I provide another argument from Bible. In Ezekiel 27:14 speaking about Phoenician city Tyre there is a verse saying that they buy mules from Beth Togarmah which means House of Torgom usually associated with western Armenia (see the map).

"From Beth-togarmah they exchanged horses, war horses, and mules for your merchandise."

This is another argument that western parts of Armenia and Anatolia were an important mule production territories. Thus it is quite plausible that the name of Mushki who were active in Anatolia became the source of this animal name in Balkans. Even more speculative, its even possible that the Latin derived word mulus < *musclos is also related to Mushki but this latter theory is more harder to prove.

PS the map has multiple doubious claims. It is used to give an approximate idea of location of some biblical terms.

Memory of ancient people preserved in Armenian language.

 Memory of ancient people preserved in Armenian language.

Armenians during their long history had interaction with various neighbouring people and tribes. Those people had different cultures, mentality and physical phenotypes. Some Armenian simple words are derived from the name of this people. Lets see them. I will start from most recent to more olders.

The word part'ev ( պարթև) in Armenian means tall, athletic, stately figure. The term is derived from the name of Parthians.

The word xuž /xužan (խուժան) meaning hooligan, wild, barbaric derived from the name of Khuzestan in Iran. The name Khuzh/khuz is the Persian distorted name of the Elamite term Susa. Most probably it do not reflect a direct Armenian Elamite contacts but rather is intermediated by the Persian.

The word xalt (խաղտ) means rude, tough, hard. Most probably derived from the name of Chaldes people living in the northwestern regions of historic Armenia. This land name is first attested in Urartian as Halitu. In Armenian period Khaltik is a region near Black sea coast corresponding roughly to modern Rize province. This shift of location probably reflects a migration in antique period. Jahukyan thinks the term is not related to ethnic group but is derived from IE.

The word korč ( կորճ ) meaning crooked, rough, uneven. According Acharyan the term is derived from Korchayk lands in southern parts of historic Armenia. Those regions were inhabited by the carduchi or kordvaci people from which the land name Korchayk is derived. Jahukyan has differen opinion on this word.

The word xor (խոռ) is rare attestation. Means stingy, avaricious. Most probably derived from the name of Hurrians. The name of the patriarch Khor son of Hayk is also derived from the Hurrians name. Possibly reflects the fact that Hurrians were more involved in trading and money lending activities.

There are other possible examples like hska/skai but its possible link to Saka people is less secure.