λίαν + οἴγω
Word
Validation
Yes
Word-form
λοιγός
Word-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
loigos
English translation (word)
ruin
Transliteration (Etymon)
lian + oigō
English translation (etymon)
exceedingly + to open
Century
12 AD
Source
Idem
Ref.
Exegesis in Homeri Iliadem 1.67
Ed.
M. Papathomopoulos, Ἐξήγησις Ἰωάννου Γραμματικοῦ τοῦ Τζέτζου εἰς τὴν Ὁμήρου Ἰλιάδα, Athens: Academy of Athens, 2007
Quotation
λοιγός, ἡ παντελὴς φθορά, παρὰ τὸ λίαν καὶ τὸ οἴγω, ἀπὸ τῶν παντελῶς ἠνεῳγμένων βόθρων καὶ σχισμάτων τῆς γῆς
Translation (En)
Loigos "ruin", the complete ruin, from lian "exceedingly" and oigō "to open", from the wide open holes and clefts of the earth
Parallels
Tzetzes, ibid., 1.341 (λοιγόν· εἶπον πρώην, ὅτι τὴν παντελῆ καὶ μεγάλην φθοράν, λοιγόν, λέγομεν, ἀπὸ τοῦ χασμάτων τῶν λίαν οἰγομένων)
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
Unique and late etymology, parsing the word as a compound: the image of the earth opening and swallowing people as a metaphor of death is old, but etymologizing the noun "ruin" after "to be wide open" is rather harsh from the semantic point of view, although in the Greek perspective it was formally easy