βόσκω
Word
Validation
Word-form
Word-lemma
Etymon-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
English translation (word)
Transliteration (Etymon)
English translation (etymon)
Century
Reference
Edition
Source
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Ed.
Quotation
βοῦς· παρὰ τὸ βῶ δηλοῦν τὸ τρέφω, οὗ ὁ μέλλων βόσω καὶ βόσις, ἡ τροφή, ὡς ἀρόσω ἄροσις· ἀφ’ οὗ βοτήρ, ὡς ἀροτήρ· βοῦς οὖν τὸ ζῷον ἀπὸ τοῦ τρέφεσθαι ἡμᾶς ἐξ αὐτοῦ
Translation (En)
Bous "cow, ox" is from the verb *bō which means "to feed", the future of which is bosō, and the noun bosis "pasture", as arosō next to arosis "ploughing". From there comes the word botēr "herdsman", as arotēr "ploughman". The ox, then, is the animal, named from the fact that we are fed by it
Parallels
Heraclitus Paradoxogr., De incredibilibus 39 (ἀλλὰ καὶ Ἡλίου βόας τούτους ἐκάλουν ὡς τὴν γῆν ἐργαζομένους καὶ ἡμᾶς τρέφοντας); Choeroboscus, Epimerismi in Psalmos p. 109 (παρὰ τὸ βῶ τὸ τρέφω); Etym. Genuinum, beta 221 (βοῦς· ... παρὰ τὸ βῶ, τὸ τρέφω· τὸ τρέφον ἡμᾶς ἐκ τῆς περὶ τὴν γῆν ἐργασίας); Etym. Magnum, Kallierges p. 203 (idem); ibid. p. 218 (Βῶ: Σημαίνει τρία· τὸ τρέφω, ἐξ οὗ καὶ βοῦς, καὶ βόσις, ἡ τροφή· ὁ μέλλων, βόσω); Etym. Symeonis, vol. 1, p. 482 (παρὰ τὸ βῶ, τὸ τρέφω, ὁ τρέφων ἡμᾶς); Ps.-Zonaras, Lexicon, beta, p. 398.
Comment
Philoxenus starts as usual from a monosyllabic verb, which he gives as *βῶ, a ghost-word, meant to be the common base for βόσις, βοτήρ, βόσκω. The name of the ox or cow is etymologized from there as the animal feeding men, literally (from its milk, its meat and the fact that it is used for ploughing fields). It requires no formal manipulation, as the stem of βοῦς is in synchrony βο-. This is a functional etymology. Interestingly enough, this etymology is also admitted by most modern scholars (although not by all), but with a reverse diathesis: the ox would be the animal which men raise and feed, not the animal feeding men.