ὀλίγος
Word
Validation
Word-form
Word-lemma
Etymon-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
English translation (word)
Transliteration (Etymon)
English translation (etymon)
Century
Source
Ref.
Ed.
Quotation
γίνεται δὲ τὸ μὲν λοίγια ἐκ τοῦ λοιγός, ὁ ὄλεθρος· αὐτὸ δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ ὀλίγον κατὰ μετάθεσιν τοῦ ο, ὥς φασιν οἱ παλαιοί. ὀλιγοῖ γὰρ τὰ ζῷα, οἷς ἐμπέσῃ ὁ λοιγός
Translation (En)
The word loigia "evil" comes from loigos "ruin". The latter comes itself from oligos "little", through metathesis of the [o], as the ancients say. As a matter of fact, ruin reduces the number of the living beings upon which it falls
Parallels
Eustathius, Comm. Il. 1, 74 Van der Valk (on this type of metathesis) (τοῦ δὲ αὐτοῦ τύπου καὶ τὸ λιαρός ἱλαρός· ἤδη δέ που καὶ τὸ λόχος ὄχλος καὶ τὸ ὀλίγος λοιγὸς καὶ τὸ ὄλισθος λοῖσθος καὶ τὸ χλόη χολὴ καὶ τὸ ῥα ἄρ, δι’ ὧν δηλοῦται τὸ δή· καὶ τὸ ἀγρυπνία ἀργυπνία καὶ τὸ Ἄτλας τάλας καὶ τὸ παραχύτης σαπρὰ τύχη καὶ ἕτερα); ibid., 1, 80 (Λοιγὸς δὲ ὁ ὄλεθρος ἢ ἀπὸ τοῦ λείπω κατὰ τοὺς παλαιούς, ὅθεν καὶ ὁ λοιμός, φασίν, ὁ κατά τε νόσον καὶ ὁ φθορεύς. ἢ μᾶλλον παρὰ τὸ λέγω ὁ λέγων, ὅ ἐστι κοιμίζων εἰς θάνατον. μάλιστα δὲ παρὰ τὸ ὀλίγος μεταθέσει τοῦ ο, ὁ ὀλιγῶν τοὺς ζῶντας). See also Maximus Planudes, Dialogus de verborum constructione 110 (Ἔτι μετατίθενται στοιχεῖα, οἷον, καρδία, κραδία, ἀτραπός, ἀταρπός, σφάγανον, φάσγανον, ὀλίγος, λοιγός)
Comment
The etymology is not attested before Eustathius, who, however, explicitly says it comes from an older source (ὥς φασιν οἱ παλαιοί). It implies a formal manipulation, a metathesis between the initial vowel of ὀλίγος and the consonant. Semantically, it relies on the simple idea that ruin kills people and animals, so that few survive, so that we have a relationship of cause and consequence. However, the interesting thing here is that the cause is the lemma (ruin) and the consequence is the assumed etymon (few), instead of the other way around