This is a simple paronymic etymology, which from the formal point of view does not require any manipulation, but which is rather difficult from the semantic point of view: what matches semantically χείρων in the given gloss is ἐλαττοῦσθαι "to be inferior", not τὰς χεῖρας which is an adverbial phrase, yet the relationship is established over the verb, so to speak, between the lemma and the adverbial phrase (see a similar structure in ἀγρός / Ἄρης). The etymology deriving "worse" from "hand, arm" refers to physical strength: Greek scholars did not pay attention to the fact that in Homer χερείων, the epic form matching Attic χείρων, does not apply specifically to physical strength. This etymology seems to have been the standard one in Antiquity. This etymology is mentioned in the Genuinum, followed by the attribution to Philoxenus (fr. 348): however, it seems that Philoxenus did not discuss the etymology of χέιρων but the form χειρότερος, with a "double" comparative , and the etymology was added by the Genuinum (ἡμάρτηται δὲ ὡμολογημένως τὸ ‘δεύτερον αὖτε γένος πολὺ χειρότερον’ παρὰ Ἡσιόδῳ (Op. 126)· διχῶς γὰρ ἐποίησεν. συγκριτικὸν γὰρ ὂν τὸ χεῖρον συγκριτικὸν ἐποίησεν, ὅπερ ἀδύνατον. καὶ εἰ ὅλως ὤφειλεν εἰπεῖν, χειρονέστερον ἂν ἐσχημάτισεν. τί οὖν; ἴσως παρὰ τὸ χεῖρος. οὕτω Φιλόξενος Ῥηματικῷ).