*λέγω

Validation

Yes

Last modification

Thu, 08/05/2021 - 14:03

Word-form

λευγαλέῳ

Transliteration (Word)

leugaleos

English translation (word)

miserable

Transliteration (Etymon)

*legō

English translation (etymon)

to lay

Author

Eustathius of Thessalonica

Century

12 AD

Source

Idem

Ref.

Commentarii ad Homeri Odysseam 1, 226

Ed.

G. Stallbaum, Eustathii archiepiscopi Thessalonicensis commentarii ad Homeri Odysseam, 2 vols. in 1, Leipzig: Weigel, 1:1825; 2:1826

Quotation

λευγαλέῳ θανάτῳ ὅ ἐστιν ὀλεθρίῳ παρὰ τὸν λοιγὸν ἢ θανασίμῳ παρὰ τὸ λέγω τὸ κοιμίζω 

Translation (En)

leugaleōi thanatōi’ : that is, from a funest death, from loigos "ruin", or "deadly", from *legō "to lay"

Comment

Derivational etymology starting from a ghost verb *λέγω "to lay", which was abstracted from the aorist ἐλέξατο "he went to bed". It relies on the frequent comparison of death with sleep (elsewhere Eustathius speaks of the sleep from which one does not awake) and the lying position of the dead body. It implies one formal manipulation, the insertion of [u]

Parallels

ibid., 1, 82 (Εἰσὶ δὲ λευγαλέοι, οἱ πρόχειροι εἰς λοιγόν. ἢ εἰς τὸ λέγεσθαι ὅ ἐστι κοιμᾶσθαι νήγρετον. τινὲς δὲ, καὶ τοὺς φεύγειν ἑτοίμους ἐνόησαν); Scholia in Oppianum, Hal. 1.375 (Λευγαλέοις· ὀλεθρίοις· λευγαλέον τὸ καταπληκτικόν· ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀλεύω τὸ ἐκφεύγω γίνεται ἀλευλέον κατὰ παραγωγὴν, καὶ κατὰ μετάθεσιν λευαλέον καὶ πλεονασμῷ τοῦ γ λευγαλέον. λευγαλέοις· ἀξίοις λόγου παρὰ τὸ λέγω πλεονασμῷ τοῦ υ, ἢ θανατηφόροις ἀπὸ τοῦ λέγω τοῦ κοιμῶμαι τοῖς κατακοιμίζουσιν εἰς θάνατον ἐξ οὗ καὶ κυνηγὸς, ἢ παρὰ τὸ λοιγὸς ὁ ὄλεθρος λοιγαλέος καὶ λευγαλέος, λευγαλέος δὲ κυρίως ὁ ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ ὄλεθρος) 

Modern etymology

Within Greek, connected with λυγρός ‘painful’. Cognate with Lat. lūgeō "to be sad". PIE root *leug- "to break" (Beekes, EDG)

Persistence in Modern Greek

No

Entry By

Le Feuvre