Etymological Note on Greek

Biliana Mihaylova, Sofia University

In Hesychius Lexicon we find the form ajlemo>v?ko>mpov. pov The word is marked by M. Schmidt with crux desperationis and we should consider it as uncertain. The form ajlemo>v is missing in the etymological dictionaries of the Greek language. However, if we succeed to etymologize it in a convincing way pointing out its cognates in Greek or in another IE languages the existence of ajlemo>v could be proved. Hesychius explains it as ko>mpov which means din, clash, but also metaphorically boast, vaunt. If we accept the existence of Gk. ajlemo>v, it seems to me possible to relate this form to the IE root *leh1- to which Gk. lh~rov trash, trumpery1 and OIr. lid accuses, blame belong. Pokorny (IEW: 666) mentions Gk. lh~rov and OIr. lid accuses together with Skt. ryati barks, Gk. lai>ein?fqe>ggesqai, Arm. lam cry, weep, Lat. lmentum moaning, weeping, lamentation, lament, ltr trre barks, Lith. lju, lti, lti OBg. barks, etc., and he derives all these forms from IE *l *l -, *l*l-. LIV (2001: 400) reconstructs an IE root *leh2- barks, but remarks that OIr. lid < *leh1- weicht lautlich und semantisch ab. In this case we could suppose the existence of two different IE roots *leh2barks and *leh 1- with an approximate meaning tell false or futile things. The hypothesis that Gk. lh~r ov o and OIr. lid2 belong to IE *leh1- is acceptable from

The Greek-English Lexicon of Liddell and Scott gives the meanig trash, trumpery. Chantraine translate lh~rov as vain bavardage, souvent trompeur, Bailly as radotage ; bavardage ; sottise, niaiserie et par extension objet sans valeur, bagatelle. 2 Matasovi (2009 : 243) reconstructs for OIr. lid a root *sleyH*sleyH- accuses whose cognate is Lat. ls, ltis strife, dispute, quarrel. The initial stl- in the Old Latin form represents a serious problem and as Ernout and Meillet notice une initiale stl- a peu de chance dtre indo-europenne.

both phonetic and semantic point of view. If Gk. ajlemo>v is cognate to the Greek and Old Irish forms, it could go back to *lh 1-emoemo-s. I have already discussed the phonetic development *RHV*RHV- > aRV in Greek. It is attested in the cases ajle>a, ajle>h warmth, cognate to OBg. summer and possibly to Hitt. allaniyaallaniya- sweat, perspire (for a horse) < get overheated and OIr. allas sweat from the homonymic IE root *leh 1- warm, hot (Rikov, Mihalova 2007); ajlao>v blind < *lh 2eyey-o-s cognate to OBg. 3 blind from the IE root with Schwebeablaut *(s)leh2y-/(s)lh2ey- (Mihalova 2008); Gk. ajmalo>v soft, weak used by Homer as an epithet of young animals < *mh mh1eloelo-, cognate to Gk. mh~lon small cattle, OIr. mil little animal < *meh 1lolo-, niderl. maal young cow, OBg. little < *moh1-lolo- (Mihalova 2009)4.

References: Bailly, M. A. 1906. Dictionnaire grec-franais. 5e dition. Paris. Chantraine, Pierre. 1968-1980. Dictionnaire tymologique de la langue grecque. Histoire des mots. Vol. I-IV. Paris. Derksen, Rick. 2008. Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon. Leiden Boston. Ernout, Alfred, Antoine Meillet. 1951. Dictionnaire tymologique de la langue latine. Histoire

des mots. Paris.

IEW: Pokorny, Julius. 1959. Indogermanisches etymologisches Wrterbuch. Bern. LIV: Rix, Helmut et alii. 2001. Lexicon der indogermanischen Verben. Wiesbaden. LSJ: Liddell, H.G. and R. Scott. 1996. A Greek-English Lexicon, compiled by Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, rev. and augmented throughout by Henry Stuart Jones, with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie and with the cooperation of many scholars with a revised Supplement. Oxford. Matasovi, Ranko. 2009. Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic. Leiden Boston.

CSl *slp *slp is probably a postverbal formation built on the basis of the causative slpiti. slpiti. As far as I know, the only counterevidence for this development could be Gk. laio>v left which is often derived from IE *lh2eywos because of the non-acute intonation of its Slavic cognates, cf. SCr. ljev, jev, lv v (see for example Schrijver 1991: 2003, Derksen 2008: 275).

Mihalova, Biliana. 2008. Notes sur ltymologie de gr. aveugle, v. bulg. *slp et ses congnres. IF, 113, 193 196. Mihalova, Biliana. 2009. Note tymologique sur gr. Linguistique balkanique XLVIII, (1-2), 2009, 129-131. Rikov, Georgi T., Mihalova, Biliana. 2007. Notes dtymologie anatolienne. In : Tabularia

Hethaeorum. Hethitologische Beitrge Silvin Koak zum 65. Geburtstag. Herausgegeben

von Detlev Groddek und Marina Zorman. Wiesbaden, 587 592.

Schrijver, Peter. 1991. The Reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European Laryngeals in Latin. Amsterdam Atlanta.