ἀ- + πέδον
Word
Validation
Word-form
Word-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
English translation (word)
Transliteration (Etymon)
English translation (etymon)
Century
Source
Ref.
Ed.
Quotation
Ἠπεδανός, ὁ ἐκ τοῦ πέδου ἀναστῆναι μὴ δυνάμενος
Translation (En)
ēpedanos "weak", the one who cannot stand up from the ground (pedou)
Parallels
Etym. Gudianum, eta, p. 246 (Ἠπεδανὸς, ὁ ἀσθενὴς, παρὰ τὸ ἀπεδανὸς, ὁ ἐκ τοῦ πέδου μὴ ἀνιστάμενος ὡς ἀδύνατον. | Ἠπεδανὸς, ὁ ἀσθενὴς, ἢ ἄτεχνος, οἱονεὶ ἀπεδανὸς, ὁ μὴ δυνάμενος δι’ ὑπερβολὴν ἀσθενείας ἐν τῷ πέδῳ, ὅ ἐστιν ἐν τῷ ἐδάφῳ στῆναι. ἔμπεδος γὰρ λέγεται, ὁ ἐν τῷ πέδῳ δι’ ἰσχὺν ἑστὼς βεβαίως); Eustathius, Comm. Il., vol. 2, p. 543 (Τοῦτο γὰρ δηλοῖ τὸ ἠπεδανός ἀπὸ τοῦ πέδον πλεονασμῷ τοῦ η); Etym. Magnum, Kallierges, p. 433 ( Ἠπεδανός: Ἀσθενὴς, ἠλίθιος, ἀναίσθητος, ἀσύνετος. Γίνεται παρὰ τὸ πέδον, ὃ σημαίνει τὴν γῆν, πεδανός· καὶ κατὰ στέρησιν, ἀπεδανὸς, ὁ μὴ βέβαιος, ἀλλ’ ἀσθενὴς, ὁ ἐκ τῆς γῆς μὴ ἀναστῆναι, ἢ ἐν τῇ γῇ στῆναι, δυνάμενος δι’ ἀσθένειαν. Τὸ γοῦν ἐναντίον, ἔμπεδον, τὸ βέβαιον, καὶ ἰσχυρόν· τὰ γὰρ ἐπὶ τοῦ πέδου βεβηκότα καὶ ἑδραῖα); Ps.-Zonaras, Lexicon, eta, p. 1000 (Ἠπεδανός. ἀσθενής. παρὰ τὸ πέδον γίνεται πεδανὸς καὶ ἠπεδανὸς, ὅ ἐστιν ἐκ τοῦ πέδου μὴ ἀναστῆναι ἢ μὴ στῆναι δυνάμενος); Schol. Od. 8.311 Pontani (ἠπεδανός ὥσπερ “βαιόν, ἠβαιόν”, “μύω” τὸ ἐπικλίνω “ἠμύω”, οὕτω καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ “πέδον” “πεδανός” καὶ “ἠπεδανός”); Schol. in Oppianum, Hal. 1.54 (ἠπεδανὸς παρὰ τὸ πέδον, ὃ σημαίνει τὴν γῆν πεδανὸς, καὶ μετὰ τοῦ στερητικοῦ α ἀπεδανὸς ὁ μὴ δυνάμενος ἐκ τοῦ πέδου ἀναστῆναι δι’ ἀσθένειαν, καὶ τροπῇ τοῦ α εἰς η ἠπεδανὸς καὶ ἀπεδανὴ, ἔμπαλιν δ’ ἔμπεδον τὸ στερεόν)
Comment
The adjective is parsed as a privative compound, which implies that the privative prefix ἀ- is lengthened to ἠ-. The morphological segmentation is ἠ-πεδ-ανός. From a modern point of view, the suffix is rather suffix -εδανός. This etymology illustrates how Greek etymologists were not interested in the internal syntax of compounds. A privative compound of πέδον should yield "without ground", which is certainly not appropriate as the etymon of a word meaning "weak". The indispensable element in order to make the lemma and the etymon match more or less is "to stand", which is absent for the etymon although the etymology relies on it (the intended etymology is "who cannot stand up"). A semantic justification by an antonym, ἔμπεδος "firm, strong" is found in the Et. Magnum and the scholia to Oppian and may be the starting point of the etymology, assuming that antonyms naturally have contrary etymologies: if ἔμ-πεδος means "strong", its antonym "weak" must come from *ἀ-πεδος, from which ἠπεδανός will be derived by lengthening of the prefix.