γράω
Word
Validation
Yes
Word-form
γραῦς
Word-lemma
Etymon-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
graus
English translation (word)
old woman
Transliteration (Etymon)
graō
English translation (etymon)
to gnaw, to eat
Century
12 AD
Source
Idem
Ref.
Etym. Magnum, Kallierges p. 239
Ed.
T. Gaisford, Etymologicum magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1848
Quotation
Γραῦς: Ἡ παλαιὰ γυνή· ἀπὸ τοῦ γράειν, ὅ ἐστιν ἐσθίειν ἢ ξύειν· ἡ ταῖς ῥυτίσι κατεξυσμένη. Ἣ παρὰ τὸ ῥαίω, ῥαῦς καὶ γραῦς, ἡ διαρραισθεῖσα ὑπὸ χρόνου. Ἢ παρὰ τὸ γράφεσθαι, ὅ ἐστι καταξέεσθαι, γραῦς, ἡ κατεξυσμένη τὸ σῶμα διὰ τὸ γῆρας
Translation (En)
Graus "old woman": from graein, which means "to eat" or "to scrape", the one who is scraped by wrinkles. Or from rhaiō "to destroy", *rhaus and graus, the one who has been destroyed by time. Or from graphesthai, i.e. "to be scraped, carved", graus, the one whose body is scraped by old age
Parallels
Eustathius, Comm. Il. 4, 448 Van der Valk (Ἀκρὶς δὲ κατὰ τοὺς παλαιοὺς ἐτυμολογεῖται ἀπὸ τοῦ α ἐπιτατικοῦ καὶ τοῦ γράω, τὸ ἐσθίω, ἐξ οὗ καὶ γράστις ἡ ὑπὸ τῶν ζῴων χλωρὰ ἐσθιομένη, καὶ γραῦς, ἣν ὁ χρόνος μικροῦ καὶ κατέφαγεν)
Modern etymology
Γραῦς is connected within Greek with γέρων "old man", γῆρας "old age", and cognate with Vedic járant- "old (man)". PIE root *g̑erh2- (Beekes, EDG)
Persistence in Modern Greek
In Modern Greek the word to designate the 'old woman' is "γριά", which is also used in compounds as "γρια-". There also is the undermining diminutive γραΐδιο.
Entry By
Le Feuvre
Comment
This etymology, like almost all other competing etymologies for γραῦς, relates the word to a negative notion of destruction. Here the old woman is devoured by time and its consequences (wrinkles). The lemma and the etymon share the initial sequence [gra], and the end of the word is left unaccounted for. This etymology shows the usual indifference to diathesis: in order to account for γραῦς, one should start from the passive (the woman is devoured, she does not devour), but the etymologist by convention gives the verb under the active form, and the passive meaning is given only in the gloss κατεξυσμένη