Eustathius is the only author to derive ἀραιός "thin" from ἀρά "curse", which is the etymology given by all authors for ἀραῖος "accursed". He goes against the tradition inherited from Aristarchus (see ἀραιός / ῥαίω) from the formal point of view, which avoids having to deal with the initial aspiration. The formal parallel he invokes is incorrect, as γῆρας is a neuter noun, perispomene, and ἀρά a feminine, oxytone, so that, the bases being different, the comparison does not hold. Eustathius assumes that since what is cursed is diminished and harmed, ἀραιός "thin" can be derived from ἀρά. From the semantic point of view, this etymology is not very different from the usual one: the etymon is the cause, the lemma is the consequence, but instead of starting from a general notion of destruction, Eustathius starts from a particular kind of destruction, that caused by a curse. There is an echo of that in the Etym. Magnum (see Parallels), which gives as a possible meaning for ἀραιός εὐκταῖος “prayed for’, implying that the etymon is ἀρά.