ῥαίω
Word
Validation
Word-form
Word-lemma
Etymon-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
English translation (word)
Transliteration (Etymon)
English translation (etymon)
Century
Source
Ref.
Ed.
Quotation
Γραῦς: Ἡ παλαιὰ γυνή· ἀπὸ τοῦ γράειν, ὅ ἐστιν ἐσθίειν ἢ ξύειν· ἡ ταῖς ῥυτίσι κατεξυσμένη. Ἣ παρὰ τὸ ῥαίω, ῥαῦς καὶ γραῦς, ἡ διαρραισθεῖσα ὑπὸ χρόνου. Ἢ παρὰ τὸ γράφεσθαι, ὅ ἐστι καταξέεσθαι, γραῦς, ἡ κατεξυσμένη τὸ σῶμα διὰ τὸ γῆρας
Translation (En)
Graus "old woman": from graein, which means "to eat" or "to scrape", the one who is scraped by wrinkles. Or from rhaiō "to destroy", *rhaus and graus, the one who has been destroyed by time. Or from graphesthai "to be scraped", graus, the one whose body is scraped by old age
Parallels
Etym. Magnum, Kallierges p. 239 (Γραῖα: Παρὰ τὸ ῥαίω, τὸ φθείρω, ἡ ὑπὸ χρόνου διεφθαρμένη. Ἢ παρὰ τὸ γεραιὸς, γεραιά· καὶ ἐν συγκοπῇ, γραῖα); Ps.-Zonaras, Lexicon, gamma, p. 453 (Γραῦς. καὶ κλίνεται γραός. ἔστι καὶ ἡ γραία, τῆς γραίας […] τὸ δὲ εἴρηται παρὰ τὸ ῥαίω, ῥαῦς καὶ γραῦς, ἡ κατεξυσμένη τὸ σῶμα)
Comment
One of the many etymologies etymologizing γραῦς after a verb meaning "to destroy". Here the assumed etymon is ῥαίω, and the etymology implies the adjunction of a consonant [g] at the beginning of the word. As the competing etymology by γράω (see γραῦς / γράω), it gives the etymon under the conventional form of the active present (ῥαίω), and gives the passive meaning, on which the etymology relies, only in the gloss (διαρραισθεῖσα). This etymology was probably designed not for γραῦς but for the derivative γραῖα, which has the same meaning. It accounts for the diphthong [ai] of γραῖα. However, since γραῦς and γραῖα are synonyms, the notice of the Etym. Magnum mixes different etymological explanations, one for γραῦς (γράς) and one for γραῖα (ῥαίω): the latter is preserved under the lemma γραῖα (see Parallels)