τράγος

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /trá.ɡos/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈtra.ɣos/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈtra.ɣos/^[1]

Forms

τρᾰ́γος (trágos) m (genitive τρᾰ́γου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It means literally “gnawer, eater”, an agent noun of τραγεῖν (trageîn), the aorist of τρώγω (trṓgō, “to gnaw, nibble”).^[2][3][1] Beekes concludes that the group of τρώγω (trṓgō) is Pre-Greek, though the formation of τραγεῖν (trageîn) may be a Greek creation.^[2]

The old Indo-European word for the he-goat was Latin caper, whose Greek counterpart κάπρος (kápros) took the meaning “boar” after τράγος was created.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it once, for he-goats in the Odyssey (9.239).^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

Herodotus sets the he-goat against the she-goat, αἴξ (aíx).^[5] By metonymy it was the smell of a he-goat, and the epigrammatists say a man “smells of goat”.^[5][2] Medical writers (Hippocrates, Galen) used it for puberty and the breaking of the voice, and Lucian for lechery.^[5][2] It also named the male of a fish (Aristotle), spelt (Dioscorides), the wild fig in Messenia (Pausanias), a constellation and a comet.^[2]

It is the first part of τραγῳδός (tragōidós).^[2] Latin borrowed it as tragus, and Modern Latin tragus became an anatomical term in English in the 1690s, from Rufus of Ephesus' use for the small projection of the ear.^[7][8] Modern Greek τράγος continues the ancient word.^[9]

Timeline

• Homer – The Odyssey uses it for he-goats.^[5][6]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus contrasts the he-goat with the she-goat.^[5][10]
• 5th century BC – Hippocratic writers use it for puberty.^[5][10]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it for a fish.^[2][10]
• 2nd century AD – Pausanias records it as the Messenian word for the wild fig.^[2][10]
• 1690s – English tragus names part of the ear.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A he-goat, billy-goat.^[5][11]
2. The smell of a he-goat.^[2][5]
3. (medicine) Puberty; the breaking of the voice.^[5][1]
4. Lechery.^[2][1]
5. The male of a small fish.^[2][1]
6. Spelt;^[2] (Messenia) the wild fig.^[2][1]

Word family

• τραγέλαφος (tragélaphos)
• τραγικός (tragikós)
• τραγίσκος (tragískos)
• τραγοειδής (tragoeidḗs)
• τραγομάσχαλος (tragomáskhalos)
• τραγοσκελής (tragoskelḗs)
• τραγῳδός (tragōidós)
• ἀντίτραγος (antítragos)
• βούτραγος (boútragos)
• τράγαινα (trágaina)
• τραγάκανθα (tragákantha)
• τραγάω (tragáō)
• τράγινος (tráginos)
• τράγιον (trágion)

Related words

• Latin tragus
• English tragus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
11. ^ Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press