ἀΐσσω
Word
Validation
Word-form
Word-lemma
Etymon-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
English translation (word)
Transliteration (Etymon)
English translation (etymon)
Century
Source
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Ed.
Quotation
Ἄχνη· πᾶσα λεπτότης ὑγροῦ τε καὶ ξηροῦ. ἐπὶ μὲν ὑγροῦ. Δ 426· ‘ἀποπτύει δ’ ἁλὸς ἄχνην’, ἤγουν ὁ ἐπιπολάζων λεπτομερέστατος ἀφρὸς τῆς θαλάσσης· ἐπὶ δὲ ξηροῦ Ε 501· ‘κρίνει ἐπειγομένων ἀνέμων καρπόν τε καὶ ἄχνας’. εἴρηται παρὰ τὸ ἔχω ἐχήνη καὶ μετὰ τοῦ στερητικοῦ α ἀεχήνη τις οὖσα, ἡ μὴ δυναμένη ἔχεσθαι καὶ κρατεῖσθαι διὰ τὸ λεπτομερὲς καὶ τομόν. Ἀλέξανδρος δὲ ὁ τοῦ Ἀσκληπιάδου λέγει αὐτὴν παρὰ τὸν ἀΐξω μέλλοντα εἶναι ὡς τεύχω τέχνη ἀποβολῇ τοῦ ι
Translation (En)
Akhnē "foam": everything extremely tenuous, of a liquid or a dry material. For a liquid one: Il. 4.426 ‘and he spits out the foam of the sea’, that is, the thinnest foam of the sea. For a dry one: Il. 5.501 ‘he separates in the blowing wind the grain and the chaff’. It gets its name from ekhō "to hold", *ekhēnē, and with privative alpha *aekhēnē, so to speak, the one which cannot be held and mastered because it is very thin and tiny. But Alexander son of Asclepiades says it comes from aïssō "to leap", future aïxō, as from teukhō <comes> tekhnē "art", with dropping of the [i]
Parallels
Orion, Etymologicum, alpha, p. 23 (Ἄχνη. παρὰ τὸ ἀΐσσω ἄχνη); Etym. Gudianum Additamenta, alpha, p. 251 (Ἄχνη· πᾶσα λεπτότης ὑγροῦ τε καὶ ξηροῦ· ἐπὶ μὲν ὑγροῦ <Δ 426> „ἀποπτύει δ’ ἁλὸς ἄχνην“, ἐπὶ δὲ ξηροῦ <Ε 501> „κρίνῃ ἐπειγομένων <ἀνέμων> καρπόν τε καὶ ἄχνας“. εἴρηται παρὰ τὸ ἔχω καὶ τὴν α στέρησιν, ἀεχήνη τις οὖσα, ἡ μὴ δυναμένη ἔχεσθαι καὶ κρατεῖσθαι διὰ τὸ λεπτομερὲς καὶ <ἄ>τομον. Ἀλέξανδρος δὲ ὁ τοῦ Ἀσκληπιάδου, παρὰ τὸν ἀΐξω μέλλοντα, ὡς τεύξω τέχνη, ἀποβολῇ τοῦ ⟦ι⟧ ἄχνη); Etym. Magnum, Kallierges, p. 181 (idem)
Comment
Descriptive etymology referring to the fact that foam, like chaff, is very light and can be projected upwards. From the formal point of view, it starts from the future: the latter provides the velar stop, and ἄχνη is then obtained through a formal manipulation, dropping of [i], as τέχνη is derived from τεύχω with dropping of [u]. The derivation from the future is reminiscent of Philoxenus' method, and this etymology is found in Orion: it may go back to Philoxenus (although it is not listed in Theodoridis' edition of Philoxenus) and be older than Alexander of Cotiaeon