μυῖα

Forms

μυῖᾰ (muîa) f (genitive μυίᾱς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *mus-i̯a, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *mus- (“fly”), formed with a suffix like that of other animal names such as νῆσσα (nêssa, “duck”) and κίσσα (kíssa, “jay”).^[2][3][1] The old Indo-European word for the fly underwent many changes in the daughter languages, perhaps through taboo, and its source may be an imitation of the insect's buzzing.^[2][3]

The Greek form agrees best with Lithuanian musė (“fly”).^[2] Related with other suffixes or vowels are Latin musca (“fly”), Old Armenian մուն (mun, “mosquito”), Old Church Slavonic моуха (muxa, “fly”), Old Norse mý, Old High German mucka and Old English mycg, the source of English midge.^[2][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Iliad a mother keeps a fly off her child, and the word is also used of carrion flies.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

Homer already made the fly an image of boldness, with the phrase “the courage of a fly”.^[5] Xenophon and the comic poet Antiphanes used it of someone who comes uninvited, and Lucian's Praise of the Fly has the phrase “to make an elephant out of a fly”, to make a mountain out of a molehill.^[5] The “bronze fly” was a game like blind man's buff.^[5]

Attic had a form μῦα (mûa).^[5] The Septuagint uses the word for the fly, and peasants, according to Eustathius, called bees by it.^[6][5] From a Hellenistic μύα came medieval Modern Greek μύγα (míga), the Modern Greek word, with a γ inserted between the vowels.^[7][8]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it of a fly kept off a child, of carrion flies, and of “a fly's courage”.^[4][5]
• 6th–5th century BC – Simonides uses it.^[5][9]
• 5th–4th century BC – Xenophon uses it for someone who flies in uninvited.^[5][9]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus uses it of a gall insect.^[5][9]
• Medieval Greek – It has become Modern Greek μύγα (míga).^[7][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fly, a two-winged insect; the carrion fly, bluebottle.^[5][10]
2. A gall insect.^[5]
3. (proverbial) “A fly's courage”, of excessive boldness; a fly, of an uninvited dinner guest.^[5]
4. “The bronze fly”, a game like blind man's buff.^[5][10]

Word family

• μυΐνδα (muḯnda)

Related words

• Latin musca
• Modern Greek μύγα (míga)
• English midge

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 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 Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
7. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
8. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
9. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
10. ^ a b Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press