σπειράομαι

Word

Validation

No

Last modification

Thu, 08/05/2021 - 14:03

Word-form

σπέρμα

Word-lemma

LSJ

Etymon-lemma

LSJ

Transliteration (Word)

sperma

English translation (word)

seed

Transliteration (Etymon)

speiraomai

English translation (etymon)

to coil up

Author

Chrysippus

Century

3 BC

Reference

fr. 744

Edition

J. von Arnim, Stoicorum veterum fragmenta, vol. 3, Leipzig, 1903

Source

Plutarchus

Ref.

De communibus notitiis adversus Stoicos 1077b

Ed.

G.N. Bernardakis, Plutarch. Moralia. Leipzig, Teubner, 1889 (2)

Quotation

ᾗ καί φασιν ... τὸ μὲν σπέρμα <παρὰ> τὴν ἐπὶ μικρὸν ὄγκον ἐκ πολλοῦ σπείρασιν ὠνομάσθαι, τὴν δὲ ‘φύσιν’ ἐμφύσησιν οὖσαν καὶ διάχυσιν τῶν ὑπ’ αὐτῆς ἀνοιγομένων καὶ λυομένων λόγων ἢ ἀριθμῶν

Translation (En)

Whence also they say that seed is in Greek called sperma "seed", as it were, the speirasis or the coiling up of a great mass in a little compass; and that Nature has the name of phusis, as if it were the inflation (emphusēsis) and diffusion of reason and numbers opened and loosened by it (transl. Goodwin)

Comment

Paronymic etymology reflecting on the nature of the seed which concentrates into a small body the potential of the whole being. The generally spherical shape of the seed led to the idea of coiling up of the whole being into a small ball

Parallels

There is no parallel

Modern etymology

Derivative of σπείρω "to sow", belonging with σπόρος, σπαρτός and many others. The root has a cognate in Hitt. išpāri- "to strew" (Beekes, EDG)

Persistence in Modern Greek

MG still has σπέρμα meaning 1 "seed", 2 "sperm", 3 (metaphorically) "offspring"

Entry By

Le Feuvre
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