χέω + ῥέζω

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Last modification

Sun, 03/13/2022 - 11:30

Word-form

χείρ

Transliteration (Word)

kheir

English translation (word)

hand

Transliteration (Etymon)

kheō + rhezō

English translation (etymon)

to pour + to make

Author

Scholia in Batrachomyomachiam

Source

Idem

Ref.

Scholia in Batrachomyomachiam 66

Ed.

A. Ludwich, Die Homerische Batrachomachia des Karers Pigres: nebst Scholien und Paraphrase, Leipzig, 1896

Quotation

χείρ ἐτυμολογεῖται ἀπὸ τοῦ χέεσθαι καὶ διήκειν ῥᾷον καὶ εὐκόλως εἰς ὅλα τὰ μέρη τοῦ σώματος· πανταχοῦ γὰρ καὶ εἰς ὅλα τὰ μέρη διήκει ἡ χείρ. ἢ ἀπὸ τοῦ χέεσθαι εἰς τὸ ῥέζειν ἤγουν πράττειν. ἢ ἀπὸ τοῦ εἴρω τὸ πλέκω εἴρ καὶ χείρ, ἡ συμπεπλεγμένη ὑπὸ τῶν δακτύλων. 

Translation (En)

Kheir "hand" is etymologized from kheesthai "to pour", as it reaches very easily and without effort all the parts of the body. Because the hand reaches all the body parts everywhere. Or from the fact it pours (kheesthai) to do (rhezein) something, that is, to be active. Or from eirō "to intertwine", *eir and kheir, the one attached below the fingers.

Comment

Compositional etymology parsing the word as a compound of χέω, as in the competing etymology χέω + ῥᾴδιος, and explaining the final [r] as the initial consonant of ῥέζω "to make". The hand is "moving to do something".

Parallels

There is no parallel.

Modern etymology

Old name of the hand, cognate with Ved. hasta- "hand" and Hitt. kesar "id.". PIE *ghes-r- (Beekes, EDG)

Persistence in Modern Greek

MG has χείρα as a learned word, including in compounds; the usual form is χέρι

Entry By

Le Feuvre