Etymology
Avestan aša and its Vedic equivalent ṛtá both derive from Proto-Indo-Iranian *ṛtá- "truth", which in turn continues Proto-Indo-European *h2r-to- "properly joined, right, true", from the root *h2ar. The word is attested in Old Persian as arta.
It is unclear whether the Avestan variation between aša and arta is merely orthographical. Benveniste suggested š was only a convenient way of writing rt and should not be considered phonetically relevant. According to Gray, š is a misreading, representing – not /ʃ/ - but /rr/, of uncertain phonetic value but "probably" representing a voiceless r. Miller suggested that rt was restored when a scribe was aware of the morpheme boundary between the /r/ and /t/ (that is, whether the writer maintained the –ta suffix).
Avestan druj, like its Vedic Sanskrit cousin druh, appears to derive from the PIE root *dreugh, also continued in Persian دروغ / drūġ "lie", German Trug "fraud, deception", and English trick. Old Norse draugr and Middle Irish aurddrach both mean "spectre, spook". The Sanskrit cognate druh means "affliction, afflicting demon".
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