τροπή
Word
Validation
No
Word-form
τροπαῖον
Word-lemma
Etymon-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
tropaion
English translation (word)
trophy
Transliteration (Etymon)
tropē
English translation (etymon)
flight
Century
1 BC
Reference
Menippean Satires, "Bimarcus", 48
Edition
J.-C. Cèbe, Varron, Satires Ménippées, Rome, 1974
Source
Nonius Marcellus
Ref.
Nonius Marcellus, De Compendiosa doctrina, p. 55, l.18
Ed.
W.M. Lindsay, Nonius Marcellus. De Compendiosa doctrina, Leipzig, 1903
Quotation
Ideo fuga hostium graece uocatur τροπή. Hinc spolia capta fixa in stipitibus appellantur tropea.
Translation (En)
That is why the flight of ennemies is called tropē "flight". Hence captured remains tied to poles are called tropaia "trophies".
Parallels
Scholia recentiora in Plutum, 453 Chantry (ἐκαλεῖτο δὲ τρόπαιον διὰ τὸ ἐπὶ τῇ τροπῇ τῶν ἐχθρῶν γεγενῆσθαι); Scholia vetera in Aeschylum, Sept. 277 Smith (τρόπαιον λέγεται τὸ ἐπὶ τῆς τροπῆς ἱστάμενον σημεῖον); Scholia in Batrachomyomachia, 159 Ludwich (ἐκάλουν δὲ τοῦτο τρόπαιον, ὡς ἐπὶ τῇ τροπῇ καὶ τῇ νίκῃ γενόμενον)
Modern etymology
From τρέπω, "to chase off".
Persistence in Modern Greek
MG τρόπαιο has the same meaning.
Entry By
Margelidon
Comment
The Latin grammarian Varro do not expose this etymology in his treatise De Lingua Latina, but in one of his Menippean Satire, where there was probably a debate on the meaning of τρόπος, perhaps a dispute based on the first word of the Odyssey: πολύτροπος, in a very scholiastic way (frg. 45-46 Cèbe). It is actually impossible to determine precisely the context of this quotation, even if the etymology is exposed in the manner usual to Varro in his grammatical works.