τρώγω + αὐλός

Validation

No

Word-form

τράχηλος

Transliteration (Word)

trakhēlos

English translation (word)

neck

Transliteration (Etymon)

trōgō + aulos

English translation (etymon)

to gnaw + pipe

Author

Scholia in Batrachomyomachiam

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

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).

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