I also consider myself a rational skeptic, but when presented with crackpot theory A vs crackpot theory B, I'm going to go with Occam's Razor until presented with new or additional information.
And given the option between a transliteration of a word that has a similar meaning to it's modern contextual usage vs a sketchy connection to a vague homophone, I'll go with the former. Again, until new evidence is presented.