γυῖον
Word
Validation
Yes
Word-form
γυνή
Word-lemma
Etymon-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
gunē
English translation (word)
woman
Transliteration (Etymon)
guion
English translation (etymon)
limb
Century
11 AD
Source
Idem
Ref.
Etym. Gudianum, gamma p. 326
Ed.
E.L. de Stefani, Etymologicum Gudianum, fasc. 1 & 2, Leipzig: Teubner, 1:1909; 2:1920
Quotation
Γυνή· δυνή τις οὖσα, παρὰ τὸ δύνειν ἐν αὐτῇ τὸ ἀνθρώπειον σπέρμα, τροπῇ τοῦ δ εἰς γ· ἢ παρὰ τὸ ἐκ μελῶν τοῦ ἀνδρὸς γενέσθαι.
Translation (En)
Gunē "woman" : as a *dunē, from the fact that the male semen dives into her, by changing the [d] into [g]; or from the fact that it was born from the man's limbs (melōn, which is the translation of the archaic guiōn).
Parallels
Neophytus Prodromenus, Orationes contra Barlaam et Acyndinum 2, 24, 667-669 (Τὸ γυνὴ ὄνομά ἐστι, λέγεται δὲ οὐχ, ὣς τινές φασι, παρὰ τὸ γῶ τὸ γεννῶ, ἐπεὶ ἔδει γράφεσθαι τὸ γῆ ἦτα, ἀλλὰ παρὰ τὸ γυῖον εἶναι, οἱονεὶ μέρος τοῦ ὅλου).
Modern etymology
Γυνή is the old Indo-European word for "woman", found for instance in Slavic žena and in English queen (Beekes, EDG).
Persistence in Modern Greek
The word is used in MG only in phrases such as "πυρ γυνή και θάλασσα" ("fire, woman and sea"). The usual form is "γυναίκα" (woman; plural: "γυναίκες"), the old Accusative singular (Triandafyllidis, Dictionary of MG)
Entry By
Le Feuvre
Comment
This explanation refers to the creation of Eva out of one of Adam's ribs (Genesis 2, 23: αὕτη κληθήσεται γυνή, ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς αὐτῆς ἐλήμφθη αὕτη "she will be called woman because she was taken from the flesh of her man"). It is an attempt at providing an etymological justification to the Greek text of Genesis. It is, however, not very clear in the formulation of the Gudianum, since in fact this explanation drives γυνή from γυῖα "limbs" but the latter word, archaic, is not given as such but only in translation, that is, it is replaced by a more usual word for "limbs": the etymon remains implicit. A complete and explicit formulation is found in N. Prodromenus (see Parallels).