λέγω1
Word
Validation
Yes
Word-form
λοιγός
Word-lemma
Etymon-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
loigos
English translation (word)
ruin
Transliteration (Etymon)
legō
English translation (etymon)
to lay
Century
12 AD
Source
Idem
Ref.
Commentarii ad Homeri Iliadem 1, 80
Ed.
M. van der Valk, Eustathii archiepiscopi Thessalonicensis commentarii ad Homeri Iliadem pertinentes, Leiden, 1971-1987
Quotation
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
Translation (En)
Loigos "ruin": either from leipō "to leave", according to the ancients, from where comes also loimos "plague", as they say, the one <bringing> illness and the destroyer. Or rather from legō "to lay", the one laying, that is, putting to sleep (koimizōn) in death. But the best explanation is that it comes from oligos "little", through metathesis of the [o], the one reducing the number of living beings
Parallels
There is no parallel
Modern etymology
Within Greek, maybe related to ὀλίγος "small" (despite Beekes' scepticism). Cognate is Lith. líegti "to be ill" (Beekes, EDG)
Persistence in Modern Greek
No
Entry By
Le Feuvre
Comment
The assumed etymon is a ghost word λέγω abstracted from inflected forms like ἔλεξα, which belong to the root λεχ- "to lie" of λέχος, λόχος etc. The derivation is not explicit in Eustathius' formulation: from that verb λέγω is derived an agent noun *λογός "he who makes someone lie" (on the model τρέφω / τροφός); from the latter is derived λοιγός through adjunction of a [I]. The semantic relationship between "ruin" and "death" is obvious, what is less obvious is that here death is referred to metaphorically, through the notion of lying dead