λαβύρινθος

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /la.bý.rin.tʰos/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /laˈβy.rin.θos/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /laˈvy.rin.θos/^[1]

Forms

λᾰβῠ́ρῐνθος (labúrinthos) m (genitive λᾰβῠρῐ́νθου); second declension^[1] Mycenaean genitive (possibly) Mycenaean Greek da-pu2-ri-to-jo.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is Pre-Greek, from Pre-Greek, as the suffix -ινθος (-inthos) and the variations between ⟨λ⟩ and ⟨δ⟩ and between ⟨β⟩ and ⟨φ⟩ show.^[2][3][4] The PHILOGLOSSA database rates this as very reliable.^[5] The Mycenaean genitive Mycenaean Greek da-pu2-ri-to-jo is usually read as the same word, so that Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-Hellenic *dabúrintʰos, but the identification is disputed.^[2][1][6]

The old connection with λάβρυς (lábrus), which Plutarch says was Lydian for “axe”, explaining the labyrinth as the “House of the Double Axe”, is called speculative by Beekes.^[2] Frisk mentions the Carian god Dabraundos in this connection.^[2][4][1] A link with λαύρα (laúra, “lane, passage”) as another substrate word is possible.^[2][4] Semitic etymologies from Biblical Hebrew דְּבִיר (dəḇîr, “inner sanctuary”) or Akkadian dalbānu (“corridor”) are rejected by Rosół.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Herodotus describes the Egyptian labyrinth, a great building of many rooms and winding passages built as a memorial of kings.^[7][2][5]

Semantic evolution

From the Hellenistic period it was above all the labyrinth of Knossos, built by Daedalus for Minos to hold the Minotaur, in Callimachus, Diodorus and Plutarch.^[7][2][8] Strabo uses it for the Egyptian and other labyrinths, and an inscription from Miletus for a building at Didyma.^[2][5]

Plato used it figuratively for a tortuous argument from which one cannot find a way out.^[7][2] Theocritus used it for a fish trap of woven rushes.^[7] Hesychius glosses it as a spiral place, and says it was used of babblers who talk in circles.^[9]

Latin borrowed it as labyrinthus.^[1] Modern Greek λαβύρινθος (lavýrinthos) is the Cretan labyrinth, any maze, and a tangle of thoughts.^[8]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Herodotus describes the Egyptian labyrinth.^[7][2]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it of a tortuous argument.^[7][2]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Callimachus uses it for the labyrinth of Crete.^[7][2]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theocritus uses it for a fish trap.^[7]
• 1st century BC – Diodorus Siculus describes the Cretan labyrinth.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A labyrinth, a large building of rooms joined by intricate passages, as in Egypt and at Knossos.^[7][2]
2. (figurative) A maze, a tortuous argument.^[7][2]
3. A fish trap of woven rushes.^[7]
4. A spiral or coiled thing.^[9][1]

Related words

• λάβρυς (lábrus)
• λαύρα (laúra)
• Latin labyrinthus
• English labyrinth

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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 Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b c d Scarborough, Matthew (2025), PHILOGLOSSA: database of Pre-Greek and other non-Indo-European words in Ancient Greek, version 1.0
6. ^ a b Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ a b Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)