ἔλαιον + κεύθω
Word
Validation
No
Word-form
λήκυθος
Word-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
lēkuthos
English translation (word)
oil-flask
Transliteration (Etymon)
elation + keuthō
English translation (etymon)
olive oil + to conceal
Century
12 AD
Source
idem
Ref.
Comm. Od., vol. 1, p. 239
Ed.
G. Stallbaum, Eustathii archiepiscopi Thessalonicensis commentarii ad Homeri Odysseam, 2 vols. in 1, Leipzig: Weigel, 1:1825; 2:1826 (repr. Hildesheim: Olms, 1970)
Quotation
Λήκυθος δὲ, ἀγγεῖον ἐλαιοδόχον, παρὰ τὸ ἔλαιον κεύθειν. ἵνα ᾖ ἐλαιόκυθός τις
Translation (En)
Lēkuthos "oil-flask", a vase containing olive oil, from "to conceal" (keuthein) olive oil (elaion), so that it is an *elaiokuthos, so to speak
Parallels
Schol. Od. ζ 79b Pontani (ληκύθῳ] παρὰ τὸ “κεύθειν” τὸ “ἔλαιον”)
Modern etymology
Probably a loanword (Beekes, EDG)
Persistence in Modern Greek
MG still has λήκυθος as a learned technical word
Entry By
Le Feuvre
Comment
Functional compositional etymology. It requires several formal changes: in the first member, apocope of the initial /e/, and change of the syllable λαι- into λη- (alternatively, Eustathius started from an etymology where the first member was λα- "greatly", which then was changed into λη-, and in his etymology ἔλαιον first yielded λα- and then the same evolution applies as for the etymology by λα-). In the second member, the vowel /e/ must be dropped (in modern terms, κυθ- is the zero grade of καυθ- and there are many examples in Greek of the alternation ευ ~ υ)