τρυτάνη

Forms

τρῡτᾰ́νη (trūtánē) f (genitive τρῡτᾰ́νης); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek τρύω (trū́ō, “to wear through”) + -άνη (-ánē), like πλεκτάνη (plektánē) and βοτάνη (botánē).^[2][3][1] Πάπυρος sets an unattested verbal adjective *τρυτός (*trutós) between the verb and the noun.^[4] The word probably named first the opening in which the tongue of the balance moves; an ancient scholion on Persius explains the Latin loan trutina in just this way.^[2][3]

Pokorny places τρύω (trū́ō) under Proto-Indo-European *ter- (“to rub”), in its extended form *teru-.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Aristophanes' Wasps, where it means a pair of scales.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

Beekes and Frisk give ‘tongue of a balance’ as its meaning, and LSJ ‘balance, pair of scales’.^[2][3][6] Demosthenes uses it in his speeches On the Peace and On the Crown, and it occurs in Lycophron, Herodas, Dio Chrysostom, Plutarch and Lucian.^[6][7] Hesychius glosses it as ζυγός (zugós) ‘balance’, and the glossaries have a verb τρυτανεύω (trutaneúō) ‘to weigh’.^[8][6]

Latin borrowed it as trutina ‘balance’.^[9][2] Πάπυρος records it in Modern Greek too, for the tongue of a balance and the balance itself.^[4]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it for a pair of scales in the Wasps.^[6][10]
• 4th century BC – Demosthenes uses it in two speeches.^[6][7][10]
• 3rd century BC – Herodas has it in a mime.^[6][10]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it in his Life of Crassus.^[6][10]
• 5th century AD (probably) – Hesychius glosses it as ζυγός (zugós).^[8][10]
• Modern Greek – τρυτάνη (trytáni) means the tongue of a balance, or a balance.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The tongue of a balance, the pointer that shows the weight.^[2][3][4]
2. A balance, pair of scales.^[6][4]

Word family

• τρυτανεύω (trutaneúō)

Related words

• τρύω (trū́ō)
• Latin trutina

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b c d e 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
8. ^ a b Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
9. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
10. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge