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
- A he-goat, billy-goat.[5][11]
- The smell of a he-goat.[2][5]
- (medicine) Puberty; the breaking of the voice.[5][1]
- Lechery.[2][1]
- The male of a small fish.[2][1]
- 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
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
- ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
- ^ 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
- ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
- ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
- ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
- ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
- ^ Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press