λαρινός

Forms

λᾱρῑνός (lārīnós) m (feminine λᾱρῑνή, neuter λᾱρῑνόν); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is unclear.^[2][3] Beekes and Frisk note that, despite its final accent and long ⟨ῑ⟩, it strongly recalls Latin lāridum (“bacon, salted pork”), the source of lardum.^[2][3] A noun meaning something like “fat bacon” behind both words would stand isolated.^[3] Osthoff set up a neuter s-stem Proto-Indo-European *laios- (“bacon”), from which both would come, but Frisk considers this and the further comparisons very doubtful.^[3][4][5]

Wiktionary mentions a derivation from λαρός (larós, “pleasant to the taste”) with the suffix -ινός (-inós), and also a possible shared substrate origin with the Latin word.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Xenophanes uses it of a fattened bull.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

In Attic comedy Aristophanes has it of a fattened ox in the Peace and, figuratively, of a “fat” word in the Birds.^[6][7] Eratosthenes uses it of fattened pigs.^[6][2] The Sicilian mime-writer Sophron derived from it a verb λαρινεύομαι (larineúomai) “to grow fat”.^[6][2]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – Xenophanes uses it of a fattened bull.^[6][2]
• 5th century BC – Sophron uses the derived verb meaning “to grow fat”.^[6]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it of an ox in the Peace and of a “fat” word in the Birds.^[6][7]
• 2nd century AD – Oppian uses a noun of the same form for a sea fish.^[3][2][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Fatted, fat, of animals for sacrifice or the table.^[6][2]
2. (figurative) Fat, rich, of a word.^[6]

Related words

• λαρινεύομαι (larineúomai)
• Latin lāridum

Usage notes

A noun λαρινός names an unidentified sea fish in Oppian and Hesychius.^[3][2] Beekes and Frisk reject a link with λάρος (láros) “gull”, because of the long vowel.^[3][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
5. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux