κείρω + αὔω
Word
Validation
No
Word-form
κεραυνός
Word-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
keraunos
English translation (word)
thunderbolt
Transliteration (Etymon)
keirō + auō
English translation (etymon)
to cut + to burn, to light a fire
Century
12 AD
Source
idem
Ref.
Comm. Od., vol. 1, p. 206
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
Κεραυνὸς δὲ γίνεται, παρὰ τὸ κείρειν καὶ αὔειν. ὁ φθείρων δηλαδὴ ἐν τῷ καίειν
Translation (En)
Keraunos "thunderbolt" comes from keirein "to cut" and kaiein "to burn", the one that destroys by burning
Parallels
There is no exact parallel. However, it is likely that this etymology, reduced to the first etymon, underlies the wording in a scholion to Aristophanes' Clouds: κεραυνὸς βαῦνος καὶ πῦρ, κείρων καὶ κόπτων (Schol. Ar. (recentiora), Nub. 395f), in which κόπτων probably took the place of another verb
Modern etymology
Derivative of an old r/n-stem form the PIE root *k̑erh2- "to smash, to damage" (Beekes, EDG)
Persistence in Modern Greek
MG still has κεραυνός
Entry By
Le Feuvre
Comment
Compositional etymology, formally more economical than the standard one by κεραΐζω + (see κεραυνός / κεραΐζω + αὔω). However, since Eustathius assumes that the etymon of κεραΐζω is κείρω (see κεραΐζω / κείρω), his etymology is fundamentally not different