ἀ- + μείων
Word
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Word-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
English translation (word)
Transliteration (Etymon)
English translation (etymon)
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Quotation
ἀμείνων: διὰ τῆς ει διφθόγγου (παρὰ τὸ μείων καὶ πλεονασμῷ τοῦ ν)
Translation (En)
ameinōn "better": with the diphthong [ei], from meiōn "lesser", through the addition of [n].
Parallels
Orion, Etymologicum, alpha, p. 18 (Ἀμείνων, παρὰ τὸ μεῖον· ὁ μὴ ἐλάσσων τινός. ἐστὶ δὲ πλεονασμῷ τοῦ ν, οἷον ἀμείων τις ὤν); Theodosius, Peri grammatikès p. 65 (τὸ γὰρ ἄμεινον ἀπὸ τοῦ μεῖον δισυλλάβου γίνεται πλεονασμῷ τοῦ Ν καὶ προσθέσει τοῦ Α); Etym. Genuinum, alpha 637 (παρὰ τὸ μείων […] γέγονεν ἀμείων καὶ πλεονασμῷ τοῦ ν ἀμείνων, οἱονεὶ ὁ μὴ ἐλάσσων τινός).
The Epimerismi homerici ordine alphabetico traditi (alpha 60) have the same explanation but go farther back and derive μείων from μέρος "part" (see μείων): ἀμείνων: ἐκ τοῦ μέρος μερίων καὶ ἐκβολῇ τοῦ ρ καὶ συναιρέσει γίνεται μείων καὶ ἀμείων καὶ πλεονασμῷ ἀμείνων (repeated in Etym. Gudianum, alpha, p. 112).
Bibliography
On the etymology of ἀμείνων, see E. Dieu, Le supplétisme dans les formes de gradation en grec ancien et dans les langues indo-européennes, Geneva, Droz, 2011, 47-54.
Comment
The comparative ἀμείνων is analyzed as a privative compound *ἀ-μείων "not lesser", as is often the case for words with initial ἀ-. It implies a formal manipulation, the insertion of a consonant. The etymology is elliptic in the transmitted formulation (the fact that ἀμείνων contains the privative prefix ἀ- is not mentioned), which has been abridged, but it is explicit in other reformulations of the same explanation (see Parallels). The explanation relies on the rhetorical device called litotes. This etymology does not consider the fact that μείων is quantitative whereas ἀμείνων is qualitative. Nevertheless, it has sometimes been taken up by modern etymologists, although there is no parallel for a comparative built with the privative ἀ-.