τραχύς + ἧλος

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Last modification

Sat, 10/22/2022 - 19:00

Word-form

τράχηλος

Transliteration (Word)

trakhēlos

English translation (word)

neck

Transliteration (Etymon)

trakhus + hēlos

English translation (etymon)

jagged + nail-head

Author

Etym. Magnum

Century

12 AD

Source

Idem

Ref.

Etym Magnum, Kallierges p. 764

Ed.

T. Gaisford, Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford, 1848

Quotation

Τράχηλος: Παρὰ τὴν τραχύτητα· ὀστῶδες γὰρ τὸ μέρος τοῦτο· ἢ παρὰ τὸ δι’ αὐτοῦ τρέχειν τὴν τροφὴν, οἷον τρόχαλος. Ἢ ὅτι τῆς ῥάχεως <ἧ>λος ἐστὶ τράχηλος· ἢ παρὰ τὸ τραχὺς καὶ τὸ ἧλος, ὁ τραχεῖς ἥλους ἔχων. Ὅτε δέ φησιν Ὅμηρος, ‘ἁπαλοῖο δι’ αὐχένος’, κατ’ ἀντίφρασιν λέγει. Οὕτως Ὦρος

Translation (En)

Trakhēlos "neck": from the fact it is rough (trakhutēta), because this part is bony. Or from the fact that food runs (trekhein) through it, as it were *trokhalos. Or because the neck is the nail-head of the backbone. Or from hēlos "nail-head" and trakhus "rough" because it has rough nail-heads. And when Homer says "through its soft neck", he speaks by antiphrasis. This is what Orus says

Comment

Etymology combining the old etymology by τραχύς with the etymology by ῥάχις + ἧλος. It may have been designed as an improvement over the latter, since with the etymology τραχύς + ἧλος no formal manipulation is required. It is a descriptive etymology: the bones of the spine are "rough".

Parallels

The etymology is attested earlier, in less explicit terms, in Joannes Mauropus, Etymologica nominum 207 (πρώτους τραχεῖς τράχηλος ἥλους ἐκφύει)

Modern etymology

Τράχηλος belongs with τρέχω "to run", older "to rotate", τροχός "wheel", and is so named because it is the axis allowing the rotation of the head (Beekes, EDG)

Persistence in Modern Greek

The word still exists in Modern Greek designating 1. the back bart of the neck, 2. the lower part of the womb.

Entry By

Le Feuvre