σπείρω
Word
Validation
Word-form
Word-lemma
Etymon-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
English translation (word)
Transliteration (Etymon)
English translation (etymon)
Century
Source
Ref.
Ed.
Quotation
Πατὴρ, ἀπὸ τοῦ σπείρω, ὁ παθητικὸς παρακείμενος ἔσπαρμαι· τὸ τρίτον ἔσπαρται, καὶ ἐξ αὐτοῦ σπατὴρ καὶ πατὴρ ἀποβολῇ τοῦ σ. ἢ παρὰ τὸ πα<τ>εῖν ἐν τῇ συνουσίᾳ· ἡ δὲ μεταφορὰ ἀπὸ τῶν ἀλόγων ζώων.
Translation (En)
Patēr "father", from speirō "to sow", the passive perfect is esparmai, the third person espartai and from it is derived *spatēr, and patēr by dropping of the /s/. Or from the fact that it treads on (pateîn) <the female> during mating, and this is by metaphor after the animals
Parallels
Etym. Magnum, Kallierges, p. 655 (Πατήρ: Παρὰ τὸ πατεῖν ἐν τῇ συνουσίᾳ· ἀπὸ μεταφορᾶς τῶν ἀλόγων ζῴων. Ἢ παρὰ τὸ σπείρω σπατὴρ καὶ πατήρ· ἢ παρὰ τὸν ἦχον τὸν γινόμενον ἐν τῷ καταφιλεῖν τὰ παιδία. […] Πατὴρ, παρὰ τὸ τοὺς παῖδας τηρεῖν· ἢ ὅτι ἵπποι ἐν τῇ συνουσίᾳ πρῶτον πατοῦσι τὰς θηλείας. Πατὴρ οὖν, ὁ τοὺς παῖδας ὑποκάτω τῶν ποδῶν αὐτοῦ ἔχων. Εἰ δὲ σημαίνει τὸν θεὸν, γίνεται παρὰ τὸ τὰ πάντα ὁρᾶν); Scholia in Batrachomyomachiam 19 (πατὴρ ἐπὶ μὲν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἀπὸ τοῦ σπείρω, σπερῶ, ἔσπαρκα, ἔσπαρμαι, ἔσπαρσαι, ἔσπαρται καὶ ἐξ αὐτοῦ σπατήρ καὶ ἐκβολῇ τοῦ σ πατήρ, ὁ αἴτιος τῆς σπορᾶς καὶ τῆς γέννας τῶν οἰκείων παίδων. ἢ ἀπὸ τοῦ πατῶ, ἐκ μεταφορᾶς τῶν ἀλόγων ζώων. ἢ ἀπὸ τοῦ τοὺς οἰκείους παῖδας τηρεῖν [Moschopoulos])
Comment
Derivational etymology starting from the passive perfect. It implies several formal changes, loss of the initial /s/, mentioned, but also of the internal /r/, not mentioned. The -t- of the 3sg ending becomes the -t- of the suffix. From the semantic point of view, the comparison of procreation with agriculture, the male sowing the seed into the soil, the female element, is very old and commonplace. The etymology arose from there. This etymology is first attested in the Gudianum but it is clearly much older. There are hundreds of texts where the father is said to "sow", already in 5th c. Attic. Whether such cases are implicit etymologies or not remains an open question