ἀλέω + φαίνω
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Transliteration (Etymon)
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Quotation
δοκεῖ δὲ τὸ ἄλφιτον, εὐτελέστερον ἀλεύρου εἶναι. εἰ δὲ οἱ μεθ’ Ὅμηρον ἐπὶ κριθίνων ἀλεύρων ἢ καὶ ἐπὶ πιτύρων τὸ ἄλφιτον τιθέασι παρὰ τὸ ἄλφεσθαι ἴταις ὅ ἐστιν εὑρίσκεσθαι πτωχοῖς δι’ εὐτέλειαν, ἀλλ’ ὁ ποιητὴς οὐχ’ οὕτως ἐκδέχεται. ἀλλὰ τὸ ἁπλῶς ἄλευρον, ἄλφιτον λέγει διὰ τὸ ἐν τῷ ἀλεῖσθαι, φάειν, ἤγουν φαίνειν καὶ λευκαίνεσθαι, ἢ φονεύεσθαι. ὅθεν καὶ μυλήφατον ἄλφιτον, ὅπερ ὅ τι οὐκ ἐξ ἀνάγκης πίτυρον ἢ πιτυρῶδες ἐστὶ, δηλοῦσι καὶ τὰ τῶν τρυφώντων ψαιστὰ, ἄλφιτα ὄντα κατὰ Παυσανίαν, οἴνῳ καὶ ἐλαίῳ μεμαγμένα ἢ δεδευμένα
Translation (En)
Alphiton seems to be a rather simple flour. If the post-Homeric poets use the word for barley flour and barley bran, from the fact that it is found (alphesthai) by beggars because of its cheap value, but the poet does not use it that way, but he calls alphiton the pure flour because in the process of grinding (aleîsthai) it shines (phaein), that is, it appears and becomes white, or it is crushed (phoneuesthai). From there comes the mulēphaton alphiton "mill-crushed flour". That this is necessarily not bran or anything like it is shown also by the ground delicacies which are, according to Pausanias, alphiton kneaded or mixed with wine and olive oil.
Parallels
There is no parallel
Bibliography
On the origin of ἄλφι, see C. Watkins, "Let us now praise famous grains", Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 122, 1978, 9-17. The suffix of an old name of barley, -it-, was transferred to its epithet "white", and the new adjective was then substantivized and replaced the old noun. "Barley" was originally paired with "honey" (*melit- > μέλι, μέλιτος) and had the same suffix, which is preserved in Hittite (seppit-) and indirectly in Greek with lexical replacement.
Comment
This etymology is a variant of the older etymology ἀλέω + φονεύω playing on the ambiguity of -φατος which is also the verbal adjective of φαίνω. This refers to the color of the ἄλφιτα, white.