DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9804#0146
120 THE LABYRINTH AND THE MINOTAUR
population.1 Some of these are " earthy of the soil " ; !
the words for dung, barley-cake, and basket, or names
of the common animals, hedge-sparrow, cock, and worm,
which never penetrated Greek literature, but were un-
earthed by the lexicographers from the language of the
country people. The similarly formed word for " mouse,"
which remains as the ordinary Greek word, is, in the true
sense, an exception that proves the rule, as it is especially
quoted by the Greek grammarians as a " Cretan " word.3
Others, again, are names of plants, some of which would
have been quite new to invaders coming from a cold
climate to a warm one ; 4 such are the words for chickpea,
and for the unripe or growing fig, as opposed, we presume,
to the fig when dried or used at table. The latter sur-
vived in Greek as a place name in the city of Olynthus,
and three other similar forms have come into our own
language, wormwood or " absinth," the " hyacinth," the
spring flower that we call an iris, and " turpentine,"
which is derived, through the romance languages, from the
Greek " terebinth." 5 Similarly it has been suggested,
though not of course in reference to this particular
termination, that " that which we call a rose " in Western
Europe is a loan word that the Greeks have passed on to
us from a pre-Hellenic language. The " wardun " that
we find in Arabic is the kind of sound the Greeks origin-
ally heard, as is shown by the digamma with which
p68oi> originally began, and by the cognate Armenian
" vard." '
1 P. Krctschmer, E.G.S. 1896, pp. 305-11, 402-4.
2 R. S. Conway in B.S.A. viii. p. 155.
•1 See ibid. p. 136. * A. Fick, V.O. 1905, p. 153.
5 The words are f36\w8os, KopvvBos, Kopwdtvs and ntlpivd-, alytvdus,
Kof>vv8(vs, t\ptv&-, <r/iiV#or, ipffiivBos and \tfiiv8os, !>\vv8us, atylvBiov,
Vl'lKtvdoS, Ttptfiivdos.
6 Cp. /Eolic fipoSov and Fick, V.O. p. 45. I am indebted to
my colleague, the Rev. D. Tyssil Evans, for the Arabic. Probably
the word would not be originally Semitic, but common to the
Asiatic languages, Lycian, Mitannian and Vannic. Indo-European
population.1 Some of these are " earthy of the soil " ; !
the words for dung, barley-cake, and basket, or names
of the common animals, hedge-sparrow, cock, and worm,
which never penetrated Greek literature, but were un-
earthed by the lexicographers from the language of the
country people. The similarly formed word for " mouse,"
which remains as the ordinary Greek word, is, in the true
sense, an exception that proves the rule, as it is especially
quoted by the Greek grammarians as a " Cretan " word.3
Others, again, are names of plants, some of which would
have been quite new to invaders coming from a cold
climate to a warm one ; 4 such are the words for chickpea,
and for the unripe or growing fig, as opposed, we presume,
to the fig when dried or used at table. The latter sur-
vived in Greek as a place name in the city of Olynthus,
and three other similar forms have come into our own
language, wormwood or " absinth," the " hyacinth," the
spring flower that we call an iris, and " turpentine,"
which is derived, through the romance languages, from the
Greek " terebinth." 5 Similarly it has been suggested,
though not of course in reference to this particular
termination, that " that which we call a rose " in Western
Europe is a loan word that the Greeks have passed on to
us from a pre-Hellenic language. The " wardun " that
we find in Arabic is the kind of sound the Greeks origin-
ally heard, as is shown by the digamma with which
p68oi> originally began, and by the cognate Armenian
" vard." '
1 P. Krctschmer, E.G.S. 1896, pp. 305-11, 402-4.
2 R. S. Conway in B.S.A. viii. p. 155.
•1 See ibid. p. 136. * A. Fick, V.O. 1905, p. 153.
5 The words are f36\w8os, KopvvBos, Kopwdtvs and ntlpivd-, alytvdus,
Kof>vv8(vs, t\ptv&-, <r/iiV#or, ipffiivBos and \tfiiv8os, !>\vv8us, atylvBiov,
Vl'lKtvdoS, Ttptfiivdos.
6 Cp. /Eolic fipoSov and Fick, V.O. p. 45. I am indebted to
my colleague, the Rev. D. Tyssil Evans, for the Arabic. Probably
the word would not be originally Semitic, but common to the
Asiatic languages, Lycian, Mitannian and Vannic. Indo-European