Cf. Syr nāḥəlat ḳamḥā ‘insectum quoddam’ (LSyr. 423), ‘papilio’ (PS 2337), literally ‘sifting-the-flour’. Both elements may represent original faunal terms reinterpreted by popular etymology (cf. *ḳVmḥ- ‘kind of insect’, SED II. No. 129)
may go back to the verbal root *nḥš‘to live, to be alive’ preserved in Akk.nêšu. For semantic development see Buck 1949:137 (numerous IE precedents) and, in the Semitic domain, Hbr. ḥayyā‘animaľ
*naḫīr- - nostril
(SED I No. 198; Kogan 2011: 221)
The reconstructed vocalic pattern is based on Akk., Hbr., Arm. and rather supported by MSA *naḫrīr--; cf., however, -u- in Arb. nuḫ(a)rat- and Jud. nḫwr.
The PS status of the present root is questionable since an independent derivation from the widely attested root *nḳr ‘to peck’ in various languages is not unlikely.