Etymology

From երկ- ‎(erk-, “2nd”) +‎ վայրկյան ‎(vayrkyan, “minute”). For the prefix երկ- ‎(erk-, “2nd”) compare Latin secunda ‎(“second”) and Greek δεύτερο ‎(déftero, “second”), meaning both “second, the sixtieth of a minute” and “2nd”, referring to the “second” operation of dividing an hour by sixty.

Pronunciation

• (Eastern Armenian, standard) IPA^(key): [jɛɾkvɑjɾkˈjɑn], (colloquial) IPA^(key): [jɛɾkvɑɾkˈjɑn]