Plutarch takes here as his starting point the usual meaning of δεῖπνον in koine, "dinner", that is, the last meal of the day. From the usual etymology which starts from the older meaning "first meal of the day" (see δεῖπνον / πόνος) he keeps the relation with πόνος "labour", but he reverses the semantics, since dinner comes after a working day, whereas in the usual etymology the meal opens the working day. Since -πνον is here also explained through πόνος, Plutarch has to find an etymon for δεῖ-, an etymon meaning "to cease" or the like: the result is διαναπαύω, where only the preverb δι(α)- can account for the initial δεῖ- of δεῖπνον, the radical παύω "to make sth. stop" being dropped as well as the second preverb ἀνα-: all this suggests that this etymology is no more than an ad hoc play. This functional etymology can also account for the meaning "lunch", since it can refer to either a cessation of labour for good at the end of the day or a temporary break in the middle of the day, the latter being justified by means of a Homeric quotation. This can be understood as a tentative adaptation of the standard etymology to the evolution of language, since the former cannot account for the modern meaning of the word