βάτραχος

Forms

βᾰ́τρᾰχος (bátrakhos) m (genitive βᾰτρᾰ́χου); second declension^[1] Ionic βάθρακος (báthrakos), with the aspiration moved; βότραχος (bótrakhos) (Hippocrates) and βρόταχος (brótakhos) (Xenophanes).^[2][3] Hesychius records many more variants, among them βύρθακος (búrthakos) and a Cypriot βρούχετος (broúkhetos).^[2][3]

Etymology

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek: the many variant forms, the alternation of α and ο, and a prenasalized form hidden in a corrupt gloss of Hesychius all point to a local word, partly reshaped by folk etymology and taboo.^[2][4] He allows that it may have begun as an imitation of croaking, something like ⟨βρατ-αχ-⟩, compare the frogs' cry ⟨βρεκεκεξ⟩.^[2] The DGE starts from a form with a syllabic /r/, which changed to the familiar forms by metathesis, and calls its origin, Pre-Greek or imitative, still debated.^[5] Wiktionary sees an imitative word borrowed from Pre-Greek or from Semitic, comparing Biblical Hebrew צְפַרְדֵּעַ (ṣəp̄ardēaʿ, “frog”) and Arabic ضَفْدَع (ḍafdaʿ, “frog”).^[1] Chantraine finds no established etymology, notes a suffix -χος (-khos) and asks whether Latin botrax (“lizard”) is related.^[6][7]

Ancient writers derived it from βοή (boḗ, “cry”) and τραχύς (trakhús, “rough”), for its harsh croak.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The mock-epic Battle of Frogs and Mice, which tradition ascribed to Homer, uses it for the frog throughout;^[9][7] among datable authors it first appears in Herodotus.^[10][9]

Semantic evolution

In Attic it is the ordinary word for the frog, in Aristophanes, who also uses it for a wooden toy, and in Plato.^[11] Theophrastus calls the tree frog the “green frog”.^[9] Proverbs mocked a man who drinks water “like a frog” and those who “pour wine for frogs”, that is, give what nobody wants.^[9] Aristotle and Aelian use the word for the angler fish, and late veterinary writers for the frog of a horse's hoof.^[9][6] Hesychius also records it for a kind of hearth or grate.^[6][2]

The Septuagint uses it for the frogs of Exodus, and the Revelation of John sees unclean spirits in the form of frogs.^[12][13] Its diminutive βατράχιον (batrákhion) named the buttercups, plants of damp places, and Latin ranunculus is a translation of that name.^[6][3]

Medieval vernacular Greek had many forms, such as βάθρακας (váthrakas) and βαθρακός (vathrakós), for the frog and the angler fish.^[14] Modern Greek keeps βάτραχος (vátrachos), with a feminine βατραχίνα (vatrachína), and the everyday βατράχι (vatráchi) continues the ancient diminutive.^[15][7]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for the frog.^[9][10][5]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it for frogs and for a wooden toy frog.^[11][5]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it for the angler fish.^[9][2][5]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus calls the tree frog the “green frog”.^[9][5]
• 1st century AD – The Revelation of John sees unclean spirits like frogs.^[13][5]
• 2nd century AD – Pausanias uses the diminutive βατράχιον (batrákhion) for a little frog.^[2][5]
• 10th century AD – The Geoponica uses it for the frog of a horse's hoof.^[9][5]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular Greek uses it, in many forms, for the frog and the angler fish.^[14]
• Modern Greek – βάτραχος (vátrachos) is still the word for the frog.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A frog.^[9][11][13]
2. A wooden toy frog.^[11]
3. The angler fish, Lophius piscatorius.^[9][2]
4. The frog of a horse's hoof.^[9][6]
5. (Hesychius) A kind of hearth or grate.^[6]

Word family

• βατράχιον (batrákhion)
• βατραχομυομαχία (batrakhomuomakhía)

Usage notes

Proverbial phrases: “to drink water like a frog”, of a water-drinker, and “to pour wine for frogs”, of giving what is not wanted.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
6. ^ a b c d e f Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
7. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
8. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
11. ^ a b c d Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
12. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
13. ^ a b c Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
14. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
15. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki