λιμός

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Last modification

Sun, 10/30/2022 - 13:00

Word-form

λαιμός

Transliteration (Word)

laimos

English translation (word)

throat

Transliteration (Etymon)

limos

English translation (etymon)

hunger

Author

Etym. Gudianum

Century

11 AD

Source

Idem

Ref.

Etym. Gudianum, lambda, p. 360

Ed.

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

Quotation

Λαιμὸς εἴρηται ὅτι πλεονάζειν ποιεῖ τὴν ἔνδειαν τῆς τροφῆς, ὥσπερ καὶ ὁ λοιμὸς πλεονάζειν ποιεῖ τὴν ἔνδειαν τῶν ζώων.

Translation (En)

Laimos "throat" takes its name from the fact that it makes the lack of food (that is, limos "hunger") undergo an addition (pleonazein), as looms "plague" makes the weakness of living beings undergo an addition

Comment

Elliptic etymology: the real etymon is λιμός "hunger", from which λαιμός is derived through addition (πλεονασμός) of the vowel [a]. The etymon is not explicit here but substituted by a periphrasis "lack of food". The aim of this periphrasis is to provide a parallelism with the etymology of λοιμός "plague", derived from the same λιμός "hunger" by the same means, and for which the Etym. Magnum has (λοιμός) Ἢ παρὰ τὸ λιμός. Λιμὸς μέν ἐστιν ἔνδεια σίτου· λοιμὸς δὲ, ἔνδεια τῶν σωμάτων (Kallierges, p. 568). In the Gudianum ἔνδεια σίτου (definition of λιμός in the Etym. Magnum) is replaced by ἔνδεια τροφῆς and ἔνδεια τῶν ζώων is synonymous with ἔνδεια τῶν σωμάτων. The etymology λοιμός / λιμός is the model after which the etymology λαιμός / λιμός was designed.

Parallels

There is no parallel

Modern etymology

Unknown (Beekes, EDG)

Persistence in Modern Greek

MG still has λαιμός "throat, neck"

Entry By

Le Feuvre