τραχύς + ἧλος
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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
Parallels
The etymology is attested earlier, in less explicit terms, in Joannes Mauropus, Etymologica nominum 207 (πρώτους τραχεῖς τράχηλος ἥλους ἐκφύει)
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".