θέω
Word
Validation
No
Word-form
θυγάτηρ
Word-lemma
Etymon-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
thugatēr
English translation (word)
daughter
Transliteration (Etymon)
theō
English translation (etymon)
to run
Century
11 AD
Source
Idem
Ref.
Etym. Gudianum, theta, p. 266
Ed.
F.W.Sturz, Etymologicum Graecae linguae Gudianum et alia grammaticorum scripta e codicibus manuscriptis nunc primum edita, Leipzig: Weigel, 1818
Quotation
Θυγάτηρ, ἀπὸ τοῦ θεῖν. ἐκτρέχει γὰρ τὸ θῆλυ τὴν ἡλικίαν ῥᾳδίως. ὅθεν παρθένος, παρὰ τὸ παραθέειν τὰς τῶν ἀῤῥένων ἡλικίας γυνὴ δὲ γινομένη ταχὺ μαραίνεται πάλιν ὡς οὖν ταχέως αὔξει, ταχέως ἀναλύει τὴν ὥραν.
Translation (En)
Thugatēr "daughter": from theîn "to run". Because the female runs out of age easily. From where parthenos "maid", from the fact that she outruns the age of males, and, once a woman, she quickly fades away again. Therefore, as she grows quickly, so she loses quickly her bloom.
Parallels
There is no parallel
Modern etymology
Isolated within Greek. Old name of the daughter inherited from PIE, cognate with Engl. daughter, Ved. duhitar-, Ru. dočь (Beekes, EDG)
Persistence in Modern Greek
MG still has θυγατέρα to designate 1. the 'daughter', 2. something originating from something else, but the usual word for the 'daughter' is κόρη. There also is the adjective θυγατρικός, 'a firm which functions as a branch of a bigger one'.
Entry By
Le Feuvre
Comment
This etymology is not adapted for θυγάτηρ but was transferred to the word from παρθένος for which it was designed (see παρθένος / παραθέω). Both words can be subsumed under the tag "young girl", and their paradigmatical relationship can account for this transfer. The explanation provided about the young girl quickly fading away and losing her beauty, a topos of erotic literature in particular, is meant for παρθένος.