τρώγω + αὐλός
Word
Validation
No
Word-form
τράχηλος
Word-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
trakhēlos
English translation (word)
neck
Transliteration (Etymon)
trōgō + aulos
English translation (etymon)
to gnaw + pipe
Source
Idem
Ref.
Scholia in Batrachomyomachiam 83
Ed.
A. Ludwich, Die Homerische Batrachomachia des Karers Pigres: nebst Scholien und Paraphrase, Leipzig, 1896
Quotation
τράχηλος ἀπὸ τοῦ εἶναι ἧλος τῆς ῥάχεως, πλεονασμῷ τοῦ τ. ἢ ἀπὸ τοῦ τραγῶ τὸ ἐσθίω καὶ τοῦ αὐλός τράγαυλος καὶ ἐκβολῇ τοῦ υ καὶ τροπῇ τοῦ γ εἰς χ καὶ τοῦ α εἰς η τράχηλος.
Translation (En)
Thakhēlos "neck": from the fact that it is the nail-head (hēlos) of the backbone (rhakheōs), through adjunction of [t]. Or from tragō "to eat" and aulos "pipe", *tragaulos, and through dropping of the [u] and change of the [g] into [kh] and of the [a] into [ē], trakhēlos
Parallels
There is no parallel
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
Comment
The word is etymologized as the "eating pipe", lit. the "gnawing pipe". It was rather natural to identify αὐλός "pipe" in the name of the neck. To account for the beginning of the word, something was needed with initial [tr] and having something to do with food. Τρώγω is not a very satisfying choice because the proper meaning of the verb is "to gnaw", which is not consistent with "neck", but the verb came to mean only "to eat", which could do, provided one assumes a series of formal manipulations both in the vocalism and the consonants of the word (explicit in the explanation).