κυέω

Word

Validation

No

Last modification

Sun, 03/17/2024 - 13:52

Word-form

κυάμους

Word-lemma

LSJ

Etymon-lemma

LSJ

Transliteration (Word)

kuamos

English translation (word)

bean

Transliteration (Etymon)

kueō

English translation (etymon)

to conceive

Author

Pythagoras

Century

6 BC

Source

Plutarchus

Ref.

Quaestiones convivales 635 e-f

Ed.

C. Hubert, Plutarchi moralia, vol. 4, Leipzig: Teubner, 1938 (repr. 1971)

Quotation

ἐν ᾠῷ καθάπερ ἐν Καρὶ διάπειραν λαβεῖν τῆς ὄψεως ἐναργῶς μοι πολλάκις γενομένης· ὑπόνοιαν μέντοι παρέσχον, ἑστιῶντος ἡμᾶς Σοσσίου Σενεκίωνος, ἐνέχεσθαι δόγμασιν Ὀρφικοῖς ἢ Πυθαγορικοῖς καὶ τὸ ᾠόν, ὥσπερ ἔνιοι καρδίαν καὶ ἐγκέφαλον, ἀρχὴν ἡγούμενος γενέσεως ἀφοσιοῦσθαι· καὶ προὔφερεν Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Ἐπικούρειος ἐπὶ γέλωτι τὸ (Orphic. fr. 291 Kern) ‘ἶσόν τοι κυάμους ἔσθειν κεφαλάς τε τοκήων,’ ὡς δὴ κυάμους τὰ ᾠὰ διὰ τὴν κύησιν αἰνιττομένων τῶν ἀνδρῶν, διαφέρειν δὲ μηδὲν οἰομένων τὸ ἐσθίειν ᾠὰ τοῦ χρῆσθαι τοῖς τίκτουσι τὰ ᾠὰ ζῴοις

Translation (En)

on purpose that in an egg (as in a Carian) I might make experiment of a notable vision that often troubled me; some at Sossius Senecio's table suspected that I was tainted with Orpheus's or Pythagoras's opinions, and refused to cat an egg (as some do the heart and brain) imagining it to be the principle of generation. And Alexander the Epicurean ridiculingly repeated,— ‘To feed on beans and parents' heads’ Is equal sin; as if the Pythagoreans covertly meant eggs by the word kuamoi (beans), deriving it from kueō (to conceive), and thought it as unlawful to feed on eggs as on the animals that lay them.

Comment

Derivational etymology, relying on a metaphor using "bean" for "egg" because of the similar shape. Empedocles is said to have used the same metaphor of "beans" to refer to the testicles, making the etymology more obvious since the latter are semantically related to the notion of conception (see Parallels). The interesting point, however, is that κυέω never refers to the male but only to the female, as it means "to be pregnant"

Parallels

Empedocles, fr. 141, ap. Gellius IV.11.9 (quia in Empedocli carmine qui disciplinas Pythagorae secutus est, versus hic invenitur ‘δειλοί ... ἔχεσθαι’. 10. opinati enim sunt plerique κυάμους legumentum dici ut a vulgo dicitur. sed qui diligentius scitiusque carmina Empedocli arbitrati sunt, κυάμους hoc in loco testiculos significare dicunt eosque more Pythagorae operte atque symbolice κυάμους appellatos, quod sint αἴτιοι τοῦ κυεῖν et geniturae humanae vim praebeant; idcircoque Empedoclen versu isto non a fabulo edendo, sed a rei veneriae proluvio voluisse homines deducere)

Modern etymology

Probably a loanword (Beekes, EDG)

Persistence in Modern Greek

MG has lost the word but still has the learned derivatives κυαμισμός, κυάμωση, referring to a hemolytic disease caused among others by the consumption of beans

Entry By

Le Feuvre
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