τορύνη
Pronunciation
- 5th-century BC Attic: /to.ry̌ː.nɛː/[1]
- 4th-century AD Koine: /toˈry.ni/[1]
- 10th-century Byzantine: /toˈry.ni/[1]
Forms
τορῡ́νη (torū́nē) f (genitive τορῡ́νης); first declension[1] Doric τορύνα (torúnā).[2][3] The ⟨υ⟩ is long in Aristophanes but short in an epigram of Leonidas.[4][3]
Etymology
The origin is obscure.[2][3] It has the same suffix as κορύνη (korúnē, “club”), σιβύνη (sibúnē, “spear”) and χελύνη (khelúnē, “lip, jaw”).[5][2][3]
Fick, Froehde and Frisk compared a Germanic verb for stirring, Old High German dweran ‘to turn quickly, stir’ and Old English þweran, with dwiril ‘whisk, stirring stick’, from Proto-Germanic *þwer-ila-.[3][5] The meaning fits well, but the comparison needs an original zero grade *τυρύνη (*turúnē), with dissimilation of its vowel, and Beekes finds it formally implausible.[5][2] A link with τείρω (teírō, “to wear out”) is difficult in meaning, and Latin trua (“ladle”), though it means the same, cannot be reconciled with the Greek form.[5][2] Because ⟨-ῡν-⟩ is a Pre-Greek suffix, Beekes holds that the word could be Pre-Greek, its ο perhaps continuing an older *a before *u.[5]
Frisk takes the verb τορύνω (torúnō) as a back-formation from the noun, while Schwyzer derived the noun from the verb.[3][2]
Earliest recorded meaning
Sophron, the 5th-century BC writer of mimes, is the first to use it, for a ladle for stirring food as it boils.[4][5][6]
Semantic evolution
Aristophanes has it in the Knights and the Birds, and Plato's Hippias Major contrasts a golden ladle with one of fig wood.[4][7] From it came the verb τορυνάω (torunáō) ‘to stir with a ladle’, used in the Hippocratic writings, by Eubulus and by Dioscorides, also compounded with συν- (sun-) in medical texts.[2][3] Plutarch and Epictetus still use the noun.[7]
The Latin words trulla and trua were used for the same kind of stirring and skimming ladle.[8]
Timeline
- 5th century BC – Sophron uses it for a stirring ladle.[4][6]
- 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes has it in the Knights and the Birds, and Plato in the Hippias Major.[4][7][6]
- 4th century BC – Eubulus uses the verb τορυνάω (torunáō).[2][3][6]
- 1st century AD – Dioscorides uses the same verb in his recipes.[2][6]
- 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses the noun in his Life of Antony.[7][6]
- 5th century AD (probably) – Hesychius records a second τορύνη, a food made from grain.[9][5][6]
Meanings
Noun
Word family
- τορυνάω (torunáō)
- τορύνω (torúnō)
Related words
- κορύνη (korúnē)
- Latin trulla
Usage notes
Hesychius records a τορύνη glossed as “something made of grain”.[9][4] Beekes lists it as a separate word of unknown origin and compares πύρνος (púrnos) ‘wheaten bread’.[5] Chantraine suggests it may be the same word, used for a purée made with the ladle.[2]
References
- ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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
- ^ a b c d e f g h Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
- ^ a b c d e f g Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d e f g h i 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
- ^ a b c d e f g Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
- ^ a b c d Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
- ^ Smith, William; Wayte, William; Marindin, G. E., eds. (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 3rd ed., London: John Murray
- ^ a b Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)