λέγω1

Validation

Yes

Word-form

λοιγός

Transliteration (Word)

loigos

English translation (word)

ruin

Transliteration (Etymon)

legō

English translation (etymon)

to lay

Author

Eustathius of Thessalonica

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

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

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