βάραθρον
Word
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Word-form
Word-lemma
Etymon-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
English translation (word)
Transliteration (Etymon)
English translation (etymon)
Century
Source
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Ed.
Quotation
Βόθρος: Δῆλον τὸ σημαινόμενον. Ὅμηρος, ‘Βόθρον ὀρύξαι ὅσον τε πυγούσιον ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα’. Παρὰ τὸ βῶ, βέω, βέθρος, καὶ βόθρος, κατὰ ἀντίφρασιν, ἐφ’ ὃν οὐδεὶς βαίνει· ἢ παρὰ τὸ βάθος, βάθρος, καὶ βόθρος. Ἢ παρὰ τὸ βάραθρον, συγκοπῇ καὶ τροπῇ τοῦ α εἰς ο
Translation (En)
Bothros "trench": the meaning is obvious, Homer (Od. 10.517): ‘dig a pit (bothron) a cubit's length this way and that’ (transl. Huddleston). It comes from bô "to go", beō, *bethros and bothros by antiphrasis, that over which nobody walks. Or from bathos "depth", *bathros and bothros. Or from barathron "pit", by syncope and change of the [a] into [o]
Parallels
There is no parallel. Hesychius, Lexicon, beta 206, explains βάραθρον βόθρος, which might point to the reverse etymological relationship, namely that βάραθρον was derived from βόθρος
Comment
Derivational etymology relying on a formal manipulation. It may have its source in the association of βόθρος βάραθρον in a proverbial sentence attributed to the Cynic philosopher Monimos (4 BC) and reported by Stobaeus, Anthologium 2.31.88: Μόνιμος ὁ Κυνικὸς φιλόσοφος ἔφη, κρεῖττον εἶναι τυφλὸν <εἶναι> ἢ ἀπαίδευτον· τὸν μὲν γὰρ εἰς τὸν βόθρον, τὸν δὲ εἰς τὸ βάραθρον ἐμπίπτειν "Monimos the Cynic said it was better to be blind than uneducated, for the former falls into the pit, the latter into the pit of death". The βάραθρον, βέρεθρον was the pit where criminals sentenced to death were thrown in Athens.