τρίχα
Word
Validation
Word-form
Word-lemma
Etymon-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
English translation (word)
Transliteration (Etymon)
English translation (etymon)
Century
Source
Ref.
Ed.
Quotation
Τρίχες, παρὰ τὸ τριχῶς αὐτὰς φύεσθαι· ἄλλη γὰρ ἡ θρὶξ τῆς γεννήσεως, καὶ ἄλλη τῆς ἥβης, καὶ ἄλλη τῆς πολιᾶς· ἢ παρὰ τὸ θερίζω, θερίσω, θέριξ καὶ ἐν συγκοπῇ θρὶξ, κλίνεται θρὶξ, θριχὸς καὶ τριχός
Translation (En)
Trikhes "hair": from the fact they grow in three parts (trikhōs) of life: because the hair that grows at birth is different from the one that grows at puberty and again different is the one of old age. Or from therizō "to reap", <future> therisō, *therix, and by syncope thrix. It inflects thrix, *thrikhos and trikhos
Parallels
The etymology is elliptic in Etym. Magnum, Kallierges, p. 768 (Τρίχες: Παρὰ τὴν τραχύτητα, τράχες τινὲς οὖσαι· οἱ δὲ, ἀπὸ τοῦ τρίζειν ἐν τῇ κουρᾷ· οἱ δὲ, ἀπὸ τοῦ πλήθους· οἱ δὲ, ἀπὸ τοῦ τρύχεσθαι καὶ ἀφαιρεῖσθαι συνεχῶς [compare Scholia in Aeschylum, Th. 760e ἀπὸ τοῦ τρίχα, ὃ σημαίνει τὰ πολλά]); Ps.-Zonaras, Lexicon, tau, p. 1745 (idem).
Local interpretation: Scholia in Batrchomyomachiam 91 (ἢ ἀπὸ τοῦ τριχῇ χέεσθαι· διὰ γὰρ τῶν ὀπίσω τῆς κεφαλῆς μερῶν καὶ διὰ τῶν πλαγίων ταύτης χέεται)
Comment
Derivational etymology relying on the notion that human hair does not grow all at once, but in different steps. The hair of old age is the grey hair. The wording of the Gudianum gives the adverb τριχῶς, but it is likely that this is a modernisation of an older etymology where the etymon was τρίχα "in three parts", which happens to be homophonous with the accusative singular of the noun θρίξ. Therefore it is a homophonic etymology: the form of the etymon is converted into another one without undergoing any change.
The same etymon, but with a different interpretation (local, not temporal), is provided by Moschopoulos in the Scholia to the Batrachomyomachia (see Parallels): "three" is understood as referring to the three parts of the head from which hair allegedly grows—the back and the two sides,