λαλαγή
Word
Validation
No
Word-form
λάλαξ
Word-lemma
Etymon-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
lalax
English translation (word)
babbler
Transliteration (Etymon)
lalagē
English translation (etymon)
prattle
Century
9 AD
Source
Idem
Ref.
Etym. Genuinum, lambda 24
Ed.
K. Alpers, Bericht über Stand und Methode der Ausgabe des Etymologicum genuinum [Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, Hist.-filol. Meddelelser 44.3. Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1969]
Quotation
Λάλαξ· ἀπὸ τοῦ λαλαγὴ τοῦ σημαίνοντος τὸν θόρυβον.
Translation (En)
Lalax "babbler": from lalagē, "prattle", which means "noise".
Parallels
Choeroboscus, Prolegomena et scholia in Theodosii Alexandrini canones isagogicos, p. 287 (Ἔτι σεσημείωται τὸ λάλαξ λάλαγος διὰ τοῦ γ κλιθέν, περὶ οὗ ἔστιν εἰπεῖν, ὅτι ἀπὸ τοῦ λαλαγή ἐγένετο τοῦ σημαίνοντος τὸν θόρυβον, καὶ ἐφύλαξεν ἐν τῇ κλίσει τὸ σύμφωνον τοῦ λαλαγή, φημὶ δὴ τὸ γ); Etym. Magnum, Kallierges, p. 555 ( Ἀπὸ τοῦ λαλαγὴ τοῦ σημαίνοντος τὸν θόρυβον).
Modern etymology
Back-formation from λαλαγέω, itself derived from λαλέω
Persistence in Modern Greek
No
Entry By
Margelidon
Comment
Lalax refers to something babbler or croaker, and especially, according to Hesychius (Lexicon, lambda 228), a kind of frog or of bird, but he does not seem to have been used in Greek literature but in grammarian literature. The name is however an expressive one.