ἀ- + γάνυμαι
Word
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Transliteration (Word)
English translation (word)
Transliteration (Etymon)
English translation (etymon)
Century
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Ed.
Quotation
Ἀγανοὶ μὲν λόγοι οἱ προσηνεῖς παρὰ τὸ α ἐπιτατικὸν καὶ τὸ γάνυσθαι, οἷς τις ἄγαν γάνυται ἤγουν χαίρει· […] ἐν δὲ ῥητορικῷ Λεξικῷ γράφεται ταῦτα· Ἀγανόν τὸ καλὸν καὶ ἡδὺ καὶ προσηνές· ποτὲ δὲ καὶ κατὰ ἀντίφρασιν τὸ χαλεπόν
Translation (En)
aganoi logoi means ‘gentle’ words, from the intensive alpha and the verb ganumai "to rejoice", those in which one rejoices a lot […] here is what is written in the Lexikon rhetorikon: aganon means ‘nice’, ‘sweet’ and ‘gentle’, but sometimes it means ‘painful’, by antiphrasis
Parallels
Schol. Od. γ 280a1 Pontani (ἀγανοῖς· […] ἐτυμολογεῖται δὲ ἐκ τοῦ α στερητικοῦ μορίου καὶ τοῦ γάννυμαι, ἢ ἐκ τοῦ ἄγαν ἱεμένοις); Schol. Od. ε 124a Pontani (οἷς ἀγανοῖς: ἢ τοῖς ταχυτάτοις παρὰ τὸ ἄγαν νεῖσθαι, ἢ τοῖς μὴ γάνος ἐμποιοῦσιν); Schol. Od. β 230d Pontani (ἀγανός: ἐκ τοῦ α ἐπιτατικοῦ μορίου καὶ τοῦ γάννυμαι)
Bibliography
On the different etymologies proposed by Greek scholars for the different Homeric contexts, see C. Le Feuvre, "Implicit elements in scholiasts' etymological analyses", in A. Zucker, C. Le Feuvre (Eds), Ancient and medieval Greek etymology. Theory and practice I, Berlin, de Gruyter, 2021, pp. 76-80
Comment
The word is parsed as a compound of γάνυμαι "to rejoice". This analysis has the advantage that it can account for both uses of ἀγανός in Homer, "gentle" when it is an epithet of "words" (with the intensive alpha), and "painful" when it is an epithet of "arrows" (according to some scholiasts), with the privative alpha. Eustathius mentions only the intensive alpha, but the privative alpha, mentioned in a scholion to the Odyssey, probably underlies the interpretation "painful", of which one does not rejoice