ἀρκέω
Word
Validation
Word-form
Word-lemma
Etymon-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
English translation (word)
Transliteration (Etymon)
English translation (etymon)
Century
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Ed.
Quotation
Ἄρκτος· τὸ ζῷον· εἴρηται παρὰ τὸ ἀρκῶ, ὅπερ καὶ ἐπαρκῶ λέγεται, ἄρκος, καὶ πλεονασμῷ τοῦ τ ἄρκτος, τὸ ἐπαρκοῦν ἑαυτῷ ζῷον. φασὶ <γὰρ> αὐτὸ διαζῆν τὸν χειμῶνα ἐκτὸς ἐπεισάκτου τροφῆς. οὕτως Κρατῖνος ἐν τῇ Ἐπιτομῇ τῶν Βασιλείδου Περὶ Ὁμηρικῆς λέξεως
Translation (En)
Arktos "bear", the animal: it takes its name from the verb arkō, which means the same as eparkō "to suffice": arkos, and then through addition of the [t] arktos, the animal which suffices to itself. As a matter of fact, they say that the bear lives through the winter without any food brought from outside. This is what Cratinus says in his Summary of Basilides' Peri Homerikōn lexeōn
Parallels
Etym. Magnum, Kallierges, p. 144 (idem); Etym. Symeonis 1, p. 206 (idem); Etym. Gudianum Additamenta, alpha, p. 198 (Ἄρκτος· τὸ ζῶον. εἴρηται δὲ παρὰ τὸ ἀρκῶ, ὅπερ καὶ ἐπαρκῶ λέγεται·); Scholia in Oppianum, Hal. 1.12 (ἄρκτον· καὶ ἄρκον· παρὰ τὸ ἀρκῶ ἄρκος καὶ ἄρκτοςἡ ἐπαρκῶσα ἑαυτὴν, ἢ παρὰ τὸ κατὰ τὸν χειμῶνα ἀρκεῖσθαι καὶ διαζῇν χωρὶς τῆς εἰσίκτου τροφῆς, λέγουσι δ’ ὅτι τὸν χειμῶνα περιλείχει τὰ πέλματα τῶν ποδῶν αὐτῆς καὶ ἐπαρκεῖται ὅλον τὸν χειμῶνα)
Comment
This etymology goes back to Basilides, an unknown grammarian probably of imperial era or late Antiquity. It is a very nice paronymic etymology appealing to one of the most striking characteristics of the bear, hibernation, thanks to which the bear need not go outside its lair to find food and is therefore "self-sufficient". From the formal point of view, it implies only one phonetic manipulation, the insertion of a consonant