ὄπτω + ῥύομαι
Word
Validation
No
Word-form
ὀφρύες
Word-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
ophrus
English translation (word)
brow
Transliteration (Etymon)
optō + rhuomai
English translation (etymon)
to see + to defend
Century
12 AD
Source
Idem
Ref.
Comm. Il. 1, 222
Ed.
M. van der Valk, Eustathii archiepiscopi Thessalonicensis commentarii ad Homeri Iliadem pertinentes, vols. 1-4, Leiden: Brill, 1:1971; 2:1976; 3:1979; 4:1987
Quotation
Ἰστέον δὲ ὡς, εἰ καὶ πολυλογοῦνται αἱ σωματικαὶ ὀφρύες ἐτυμολογικῶς, ἀλλὰ νῦν ἀρκεῖ φάναι ὡς παρὰ τὸ ὄπτω γίνεται καὶ τὸ ῥύω, τὸ φυλάσσω, τροπῇ συνήθει ἐν πολλοῖς τοῦ π εἰς φ. φυλάσσουσι γὰρ τὴν ὄψιν ἔκ τε ἄλλων καὶ τοῦ μὴ κακουργεῖσθαι ὑπὸ ἱδρώτων
Translation (En)
You must know that, even though there is much talk on the etymology of the name of the body part ophrues "brows", now it is enough to say that it comes from optō "to see" and rhuō "to defend", with a change that happens in many words from /p/ to /ph/. Because they guard the sight in particular from being harmed by sweat
Parallels
There is no parallel
Modern etymology
Inherited word for "brow", matching Ved. bhrū-, Engl. brow, Germ. Braue, OCS brъvь, isolated in Greek (Beekes, EDG)
Persistence in Modern Greek
MG has φρύδι, from the old diminutive ὀφρύδιον
Entry By
Le Feuvre
Comment
This etymology is the compositional version of the derivational one by ὄπτω (see ὀφρύς / ὄπτω). It is a transformation of the older one by ὤψ + ῥύομαι, and replaces the noun ὤψ by the verb form from which ὤψ is allegedly derived. For the semantics, see ὀφρύς / + ὤψ + ῥύομαι