φάρυγξ

Forms

φᾰ́ρῠγξ (phárunx) f or m (genitive φᾰ́ρῠγγος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek, because of its prenasalized suffix -υ(γ)γ-, the same as in λάρυγξ (lárunx, “larynx”).^[2][3] PHILOGLOSSA rates this Pre-Greek origin as highly reliable.^[4]

Frisk took it for an inherited Indo-European word for “throat”, identical with Latin frūmen (“gullet”) and Old Armenian երբուծ (erbuc, “breast”), and connected it with φάρος (pháros, “plough”) and φάραγξ (pháranx, “ravine”);^[5][1] Beekes rejects this as “completely wrong”.^[2] Others derive it from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH- and compare Old Armenian բերան (beran, “mouth”).^[1] Babiniotis and the Πάπυρος dictionary follow the Indo-European explanation, from a root *bʰer- (“to cut, bore”).^[6][7]

The Etymologicum Magnum derived it from φέρω (phérō), as the passage through which breath is carried.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Odyssey wine gushes from the Cyclops' throat, and someone is seized by the throat with the right hand.^[9][10][11]

Semantic evolution

Thucydides uses it of the throat in illness.^[10] Aristophanes and Euripides' Cyclops use it for the gullet of gluttons, and Aristophanes as an insult for a glutton.^[10][9] Hippocratic medicine uses it for the throat and for a throat disease.^[2] The genitive is φάρυγος in Homer, tragedy and comedy, and φάρυγγος later, by analogy with λάρυγξ.^[9][6]

Modern Greek has the learned φάρυγγας (fáringas), the anatomical pharynx, made from the accusative φάρυγγα.^[12] English took pharynx as an anatomical term in the 1690s.^[13]

Timeline

• 8th century BC – The Odyssey uses it for the throat.^[9][11]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides and Hippocrates use it of the throat in illness.^[10][2]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it for the gullet and for a glutton.^[10]
• 1690s – English borrows it as pharynx.^[13]
• Modern Greek – It continues as the learned anatomical term φάρυγγας (fáringas).^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. The throat, the front of the neck.^[9][10]
2. The gullet, the internal throat, and (comedy, as a term of abuse) a glutton.^[9][10]
3. The windpipe or larynx.^[2]
4. (medicine) A throat disease.^[2]

Related words

• English pharynx

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ Scarborough, Matthew (2025), PHILOGLOSSA: database of Pre-Greek and other non-Indo-European words in Ancient Greek, version 1.0
5. ^ Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
7. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
8. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
11. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
12. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
13. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com