πήθω

Validation

No

Last modification

Mon, 12/20/2021 - 12:05

Word-form

πήρα

Transliteration (Word)

pēra

English translation (word)

leathern pouch

Transliteration (Etymon)

pēthō

English translation (etymon)

to suffer

Author

Etym. Gudianum

Century

11 AD

Source

Idem

Ref.

Etym. Gudianum, pi, p. 466

Ed.

F.W. Sturz, Etymologicum Graecae linguae Gudianum et alia grammaticorum scripta e codicibus manuscriptis nunc primum edita, Leipzig: Weigel, 1818

Quotation

Πήρα, σημαίνει τὸ σακκοπάθνιον, ἐκ τοῦ πήθω, οὗ ὁ μέλλων πήσω, ὁ μέσος παρακείμενος πέπηθα, καὶ κατ’ ἀφαίρεσιν τῆς πε συλλαβῆς καὶ τροπῇ τοῦ θ εἰς ρ, πήρα· ταύτην γὰρ οἱ πάσχοντες ὑπὸ τῆς ἐνδείας βαστάζουσι.

Translation (En)

Pēra "leathern pouch", from pēthō "to suffer", the future of which is pēsō, the middle perfect pepētha, and through removal of the syllable [pe] and change of the [th] into [r], pēra. As a matter of fact, this is the one which those suffering from poverty carry.

Comment

The bag is etymologized after the man carrying it: poor men own only what is in their bag. The alleged etymon πήθω was inferred from πάθω (Modern Greek παθαίνω), and formally, the etymology relies on the familiar alternation α ~ η. Semantically, πάσχω is not very specific and can be involved in many semantic derivations like this one: those who suffer (πάσχω) from poverty carry only a πήρα.

Parallels

There is no parallel.

Modern etymology

Unknown (Beekes, EDG)

Persistence in Modern Greek

No

Entry By

Le Feuvre