ῥοώδης

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Last modification

Tue, 06/01/2021 - 15:39

Word-form

ῥόδον

Transliteration (Word)

rhodon

English translation (word)

rose

Transliteration (Etymon)

rhoōdēs

English translation (etymon)

running violently, falling off

Author

Scholia in Theocritum

Source

Idem

Ref.

Scholia in Theocritum (vetera) 5.93a

Ed.

K. Wendel, Scholia in Theocritum vetera, Leipzig: Teubner, 1914

Quotation

ῥόδον παρὰ τὸ θᾶττον ἀπορρεῖν· ῥοῶδες γάρ ἐστιν ἤτοι συντόμως φθειρόμενον. ἢ <ἀπὸ τοῦ ῥεῖν> ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ τὴν ὀδμὴν ἢ ἀπὸ τοῦ ὄζω

Translation (En)

Rhodon "rose": from the fact it quickly withers, falling off (rhoōdes), that is, quickly dying. Or from the fact that the smell (odmē) <flows (rhein)> from it, or from ozō "to smell"

Comment

Derivational etymology etymologizing the name of the flower from the fact that it is short-lived. The Greeks established a relationship between the intensity of the smell "flowing" from the rose and its quick withering, the one being the consequence of the other: this can be seen in the compositional etymology given by Plutarch (see ῥόδον / ῥέω + ὀδωδή), "therefore it withers". The etymology by ῥοώδης "flowing violently" condenses both into a single etymon, since ῥοώδης also means "falling"

Parallels

There is no parallel

Modern etymology

Loanword, maybe from Iranian (Beekes, EDG)

Persistence in Modern Greek

MG still has ρόδο as a learned word and many compounds in ροδο-. The usual word is τριανταφυλλο "thirty-petal"

Entry By

Le Feuvre