νη- + δυσ-
Word
Validation
No
Word-form
νηδύς
Word-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
nēdus
English translation (word)
womb
Transliteration (Etymon)
nē- + dus-
English translation (etymon)
not + ill-
Century
9 AD
Source
idem
Ref.
De natura hominis, p. 8
Ed.
J. A. Cramer, Anecdota Graeca e codd. manuscriptis bibliothecarum Oxoniensium, vol. 3, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1836 (repr. Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1963)
Quotation
νηδύς […] ἢ παρὰ τὸ νη στερητικὸν καὶ τὸ δυς μόριον· ὅτι καὶ παιδοποιΐας στερεῖται, καὶ δυστοκίας ὑφίσταται
Translation (En)
Nēdus "womb" […], or from the privative prefix nē- and the prefix dus- "ill-", because it can be deprived of generation, and it can suffer from difficult birth
Parallels
Leo Medicus, De natura hominum synopsis 1 (νηδύς […] <…> καὶ τὸ δυς, ὅτι στερεῖται παιδοποιίας καὶ ὅτι δυστοκεῖ [with a lacuna before καὶ τὸ δυσ])
Modern etymology
Unknown (Beekes, EDG)
Persistence in Modern Greek
No
Entry By
Le Feuvre
Comment
Remarkable compositional etymology with two prefixes and no root. It did not occur to the author that both prefixes are incompatible and that a compound cannot consist of two prefixes only. Neither did it seem to occur to him that there was a contradiction: the womb either suffers from barrenness (νη-) or from difficult birth (δυσ-) but not from both at the same time, which the compound νη-δυς would seem to imply.