ῥᾴδιος
Word
Validation
Word-form
Word-lemma
Etymon-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
English translation (word)
Transliteration (Etymon)
English translation (etymon)
Century
Source
Ref.
Ed.
Quotation
τὸ δὲ δεῖπνον, ὅτι τῶν πόνων διαναπαύει· πράξαντες γάρ τι δειπνοῦσιν ἢ μεταξὺ πράττοντες· ἔστι δὲ καὶ τοῦτο παρ᾽ Ὁμήρου λαβεῖν λέγοντος (Λ 86)· ἦμος δὲ δρυτόμος περ ἀνὴρ ὡπλίσσατο δεῖπνον. εἰ μὴ νὴ Δία τὸ ἄριστον αὐτόθεν ἀπραγμόνως προσφερόμενοι καὶ ῥᾳδίως ἀπὸ τῶν τυχόντων, τὸ δὲ δεῖπνον ἤδη παρεσκευασμένον, ἐκεῖνο μὲν ῥᾷστον, τοῦτο δ᾽ ὥσπερ διαπεπονημένον ἐκάλεσαν.’
Translation (En)
Deipnon "dinner", on the other hand, is so called because it "brings rest" (dianapauei) from labour; people dine when they have finished working, or in the intervals of work. This, too, can be gathered from a phrase of Homer: "At the time of day when a woodsman prepares his dinner" (Λ 86). Still, it may be that since people took breakfast wherever they were and without trouble or effort, they derived the word ariston "breakfast" from rhaiston "easiest" and deipnon "dinner" from diapeponēmenon "prepared" (Transl. Edwin L. Minar, F. H. Sandbach, W. C. Helmbold, Loeb CL)
Parallels
There are no parallels
Comment
This is an etymology ex antonymo, providing an alternative explanation for both δεῖπνον and ἄριστον, and following the "received" explanation (for δεῖπνον). The explanation of δεῖπνον as a meal prepared with care implies that its antonym ἄριστον must mean "not prepared", that is "ready at hand, easy". The suffix of ἄριστον, identical with the superlative suffix -ιστος, could favor this playful etymology, which requires only one formal manipulation, a metathesis if [a] and [r]