λάθυρος

Forms

λᾱ́θῠρος (lā́thuros) m (genitive λᾱθῠ́ρου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.^[2][3][4] Beekes finds no etymology and notes that the structure of the word, with the suffix -υρ-, could point to a Pre-Greek word.^[2][1]

The word has been compared with names of the lentil, Latin lēns and Old Church Slavonic лѧща (lęšta), but the likeness is remote.^[2][1] Chantraine and Frisk hold that it proves neither an Indo-European kinship nor borrowing from a common source.^[3][4][5]

Ancient writers heard the word λήθη (lḗthē, “forgetfulness”) in it: Plutarch reports that the Pythagoreans abstained from this pulse because its name recalled forgetting.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the comic poets of the 4th century BC, Anaxandrides and Alexis, in the plural, for a kind of pulse, the chickling or grass pea (Lathyrus sativus).^[7][3][8]

Semantic evolution

Theophrastus treats it among the pulses in his botanical works, and later writers such as Plutarch, Galen and Pollux name it too.^[7][6][9] Babrius has a neuter plural λάθυρα beside the usual masculine.^[7][3] From it was formed λαθυρίς (lathurís), the caper spurge, a plant whose brown seeds look like those of the pulse and give a purging oil, and Latin glossaries borrowed that word as Latin latridus.^[3][4] As a nickname, Lathyros was given to the Ptolemy whom Chantraine and Montanari number as Ptolemy VIII.^[3][6]

Hesychius glosses it simply as a kind of pulse.^[10] In medieval Greek it was used, personified, as a name in a satirical text.^[11] The vernacular continued it as λαθούριν (lathoúrin) and Modern Greek λαθούρι (lathoúri); the ancient form λάθυρος survives as the botanical name of the genus.^[12][13][5]

Timeline

• 4th century BC – The comic poet Anaxandrides names it among foods, in the plural.^[7][3][8]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Alexis mentions it, and Theophrastus describes it among the pulses.^[7][6][8]
• 1st century AD – Babrius uses the neuter plural λάθυρα.^[7][8]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch reports the Pythagorean avoidance of the pulse, and uses Lathyros as a nickname of a Ptolemy.^[6][7][8]
• 5th century AD (probably) – Hesychius glosses it as a kind of pulse.^[10][8]
• Modern Greek – The plant is called λαθούρι (lathoúri), and λάθυρος names the botanical genus.^[12][13][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A kind of pulse, the chickling or grass pea, Lathyrus sativus.^[7][2][3]
2. (proper name) Lathyros, a nickname of a Ptolemaic king.^[6][3]

Related words

• λαθυρίς (lathurís)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 d e f g h i 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
4. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b c Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
6. ^ a b c d e f Montanari, Franco (2015), The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek, ed. Madeleine Goh and Chad Schroeder, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
9. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
10. ^ a b Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
11. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
12. ^ a b Βικιλεξικό, the Greek Wiktionary, https://el.wiktionary.org
13. ^ a b Τεγόπουλος, Γ.; Φυτράκης, Ε. (1997), Μείζον Ελληνικό Λεξικό, Athens: Αρμονία