ἅμμα
Word
Validation
Word-form
Word-lemma
Etymon-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
English translation (word)
Transliteration (Etymon)
English translation (etymon)
Century
Source
Ref.
Ed.
Quotation
Αἷμα, παρὰ τὸ ἔσω, ὡς ἅμμα, καὶ δεσμὸς πάντων δυναστεύων· ὡς Ἐμπεδοκλῆς ὁ φιλόσοφος φησίν· αἷμα γὰρ ἀνθρώποις περικάρδιον ἐστὶ νόημα.
Translation (En)
"Blood (haima) is from that which inside is as a link (hamma) and a bond which rules everything. As the philosopher Empedocles says: «because blood is the thought which surrounds the heart»"
Parallels
Orion, Etymologicum (excerpta e cod. regio Paris. 2630), p. 185 (Αἷμα· τὸ θερμότατον τὸ ἐν σώμασι· διὸ καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἄναμμα εἶναι κέκληται αἷμα· ἢ παρὰ τὸ ἔσω. καθ’ ὃ δὲ ὡς ἅμμα καὶ δεσμὸς πάντων δυνατεύων, Ἐμπεδοκλῆς ὁ φιλόσοφος φησίν· Αἷμα γὰρ ἀνθρώποις περικαρδ νόημα); Meletius, De natura hominis p. 37 (καὶ γίνεται αἷμα παρὰ τὸ ἔναμμα εἶναι καὶ δεσμὸν τῷ σώματι); Etym. Gudianum, alpha, p. 45 ([παρὰ τὸ ἅμμα] καὶ σύνδεσμόν τι εἶναι τοῦ ὅλου σώματος); Etym. Magnum, Kallierges p. 34 (Αἷμα: παρὰ τὸ ἅμμα τὶ εἶναι τοῦ σώματος).
This etymology may be hinted at in Plato, Timaeus 70b1 (τὴν δὲ δὴ καρδίαν ἅμμα τῶν φλεβῶν καὶ πηγὴν τοῦ περιφερομένου κατὰ πάντα τὰ μέλη σφοδρῶς αἵματος "the heart, bond of the veins and source of the blood which is transported into all the limbs").
Comment
This etymology relies formally on the phonetic and morphological similarity between [haima] and [hamma], which have the same inflectional type, and semantically on the fact that blood is found throughout the body, in veins which appear as a net binding the body together.