βοῦς + λιμός

Validation

Yes

Last modification

Tue, 06/01/2021 - 15:39

Word-form

βούλιμος

Transliteration (Word)

boulimos

English translation (word)

insatiable hunger

Transliteration (Etymon)

bous + limos

English translation (etymon)

ox + hunger

Author

Orion

Century

5 AD

Source

Idem

Ref.

Etymologicum, beta, p. 33

Ed.

F. Sturz, Orionis Thebani etymologicon, Leipzig, Weigel, 1820

Quotation

Βουβών, ἐπὶ τοῦ συμβαίνοντος οἰδήματος, παρὰ τὸ ἄγαν βαίνει<ν> εἰς ὕψος· βῶ οὖν βῶν, καὶ ἐπιτατικοῦ μορίου τοῦ βοῦ βουβὼν, ὡς βούπαις, βουγάϊος, βούλιμος

Translation (En)

Boubōn "bubon", said of the incoming oedema, from the fact that it goes (bainein) very much upward: , therefore <participle> bôn, and with the intensive prefix bou-, boubōn, as boupais "big child", bougeais "big braggart", boulimos "big hunger"

Comment

The word is correctly parsed as a compound, the first element being identified as an "intensive prefix", found in several words. Modern linguists agree that this intensive prefix is the name of the ox, βοῦς, reanalyses in some compounds of the type βούλιμος "ox-hunger", that is, "great hunger", or "suffering from a great hunger"

Parallels

Etym. Gudianum Additamenta, beta, p. 281 (idem); Συναγωγή λέξεων χρησίμων (versio antiqua), beta 77 (Βούλιμος· ἡ ἐπιτεταμένη λιμός); Photius, Lexicon, beta 236 (idem); Ps.-Zonaras, Lexicon, beta, p. 397 (idem); Etym. Genuinum, beta 223 (Βούσυκον· εἰώθασι γὰρ τῇ προσθήκῃ τοῦ ἵππου ἢ τοῦ βοὸς τὸ μέγεθος τοῦ ὑποκειμένου δηλοῦν. ἀπὸ μὲν τοῦ βοὸς βούσυκον βούπαις βούλιμος); Etym. Symeonis, vol. 1, p. 486 (idem); Ps.-Zonaras, Lexicon, beta, p. 402 (idem); Suda, beta 441 (Βούλιμος· ἀρσενικῶς. ἡ ἐπιτεταμένη λιμός); Etym. Magnum, Kallierges, p. 208 (Βούλιμος: Ὁ μέγας καὶ ἐπιτεταμένος λιμός· παρὰ τὸ βοῦ, ἐπιτατικὸν μόριον, καὶ τὸ λιμός); Scholia in Xenophontem, An. 4.5.27 (ὥσπερ βοῦν] ὅ ἐστι δαψιλῶς· τὸ γὰρ τοῦ βοὸς ὄνομα ἐπὶ τοῦ μεγάλου λαμβάνεται· ἔνθεν καὶ βούπαις καὶ βούλιμος)

Modern etymology

Compound of βοῦς "ox" and λιμός "hunger", lit. "ox-hunger"

Persistence in Modern Greek

MG has βουλιμία

Entry By

Le Feuvre