*φῶ
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English translation (word)
Transliteration (Etymon)
English translation (etymon)
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Quotation
παιφάσσουσα· ἐνθουσιῶσα, ὁρμῶσα, εἰς φόνον ὁρμήσασα· ἐκ τοῦ φῶ φάσσω καὶ παφάσσω καὶ παιφάσσω, ἕτεροι δὲ παιφάσσειν λέγουσι τὸ γοργὰ βλέπειν ἀπὸ τοῦ τὰ φάη πάντα ἀΐσσειν. παιφάσσουσα· ὡς εἰς φόρον (mistake for φόνον) ὁρμῶσα· ἐκ τοῦ φῶ φώσω ἀναδιπλασιασμῷ φάσσουσα, καὶ δι’ εὐφωνίαν παφάσσουσα καὶ πλεονασμῷ τουτέστι (τοῦ ι) παιφάσσουσα, ἕτεροι (cod. ἕτερος) δὲ παιφάσσειν λέγουσι τὸ ταχέως βλέπειν καὶ οἱονεὶ πάντα τὰ φάη ἀΐσσειν
Translation (En)
paiphassousa: rushing, hurrying, running to murder (eis phonon). From the verb *phô "to kill", *phassō and *paphassō and paiphassō. But others say paiphassein comes from "to look fiercely", from "to move quickly (aïssein) the eyes (phaē) everywhere (pant<ē>)". Paiphassousa: as though running to murder (phonon). From the verb *phô "to kill", *phōsō, with reduplication *phassousa, for euphony *paphassousa and with addition of [I], paiphassousa. But others say it means "to glance quickly", as though "to move the eyes everywhere" (pant<ē> ta phaē aïssein)
Parallels
Ps-Oppian, Cynegetica 2.249–250: […] κατὰ δὲ χθονὶ πολλὰ κέχυνται
λείψανα παιφάσσοντα καὶ ἀσπαίροντα φόνοισι.
Comment
This etymology derives the form not from the verb φάω "to shine" as the competing ones (see παιφάσσω / φαίνω), but from a homonymous verb φάω "to kill", assumed as the basis of the verbal adjective φατός (πρόσφατος "recently killed", Il. 24.757), μυλήφατος "crushed by the mill") and recognized by some Greek etymologists as related to φόνος (this is why the link to the LSJ here refers to φόνος). This φάω "to kill" is one of Philoxenus' monosyllabic verbs. The etymology was known under two different variants, both of which are mentioned in the scholion, which stitches together two different sources. One assumes first reduplication then addition of a vowel, φάσσω → παφάσσω → παιφάσσω. The second one is much less clear in the explanation of the different steps.
This etymology is old because it is found as an implicit etymology in the Pseudo-Oppian's Cynegetica in the beginning of the 3rd c. AD (see Parallels)