ἀσφάραγος

Greek has two words spelled ἀσφάραγος, “throat” and “asparagus”, which LSJ and Beekes treat separately.^[1][2]

ἀσφάραγος¹ throat

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /as.pʰá.ra.ɡos/^[3]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /asˈɸa.ra.ɣos/^[3]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /asˈfa.ra.ɣos/^[3]

Forms

ἀσφάρᾰγος (aspháragos) m (genitive ἀσφᾰράγου); second declension^[3]

Etymology

The throat is a word that Beekes considers Pre-Greek, because of its variants and its suffix -αγγ- (-ang-) with a nasal before the consonant.^[2][4] Hesychius has a variant without the first vowel, σφάραγγος (sphárangos), and the grammarian Apion equated the form σφάραγος (spháragos) with φάρυγξ (phárunx, “throat”).^[2][5] Furnée connected φάραγξ (pháranx, “gorge, ravine”), and Beekes adds the word for “throat”, but Furnée's further comparison with μάραγοι (máragoi, “overhanging places”) seems improbable to Beekes.^[2][4][3] Beekes sees the prothetic vowel, the alternation with and without /s/ and the prenasalized suffix as proof of a substrate origin.^[4]

The DGE instead takes it as a doublet of that form with a prothetic vowel, related to the word for “throat” and to σφαραγέομαι (spharagéomai, “to crackle, burst”), all probably imitative.^[6] Frisk thought it might be the same word as ἀσφάραγος “asparagus”, from an original “hollow stalk, tube”, but Chantraine sees no demonstrable link between the two, and Beekes gives them separate origins.^[7][5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It occurs once in Homer, in the Iliad (22.328): the spear that kills Hector does not cut through his windpipe, so that he can still speak.^[8][1][6] Chantraine notes that here it is not simply the throat but the windpipe, as opposed to the gullet.^[5]

Semantic evolution

After Homer the word is rare and literary: Plutarch uses it, and the late epic poets Quintus of Smyrna and Nonnus take it over from the Iliad.^[1][6] Hesychius glosses it as the throat or windpipe.^[5]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it of Hector's windpipe.^[8][1]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it for the throat.^[1][6]
• 3rd century AD – Quintus of Smyrna uses it in his epic.^[1][6]
• 4th–5th century AD – Nonnus uses it in the Dionysiaca.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The throat, windpipe, gullet.^[1][6][8]

ἀσφάραγος² asparagus

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /as.pʰá.ra.ɡos/^[3]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /asˈɸa.ra.ɣos/^[3]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /asˈfa.ra.ɣos/^[3]

Forms

ἀσφάρᾰγος (aspháragos) m (genitive ἀσφᾰράγου); second declension^[3]

Etymology

Asparagus is a word that Beekes considers Pre-Greek, because it varies between ⟨φ⟩ and ⟨π⟩ (ἀσπάραγος (aspáragos)).^[2][4] Beekes does not connect it with ἀσφάραγος “throat”, and Chantraine sees no demonstrable link between them.^[2][5]

It has often been compared with σφαραγέομαι (spharagéomai, “to swell, be full to bursting”), and outside Greek with Lithuanian spùrgas (“shoot”), but Frisk finds the relations within this group hard to fix because of the wavering forms and meanings, and he allows that ἀσφάραγος may be borrowed.^[7][5] The DGE derives it from a root meaning “to sprout”.^[6] Wiktionary argues that a borrowing from an Old Persian word for “sprout”, from Proto-Iranian *spr̥Hgah (“sprout”), is possible for the name of a cultivated plant.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the 5th century BC it appears in the comic poets Cratinus and Amipsias and in the Hippocratic treatise on the diseases of women, as the name of wild asparagus (Asparagus acutifolius).^[1][6]

Semantic evolution

The grammarian Phrynichus counted ἀσφάραγος as the Attic form, while ἀσπάραγος is found in Antiphanes and the later writers such as Polybius and Nicander.^[1][5] Theophrastus, Dioscorides and Galen use it for the edible shoots, and Nicander and others for the young shoots of other plants as well.^[1][6] From it come ἀσφαραγία (aspharagía), the rootstock of asparagus, and ἀσφαραγωνία (aspharagōnía), a wreath of asparagus.^[2][7]

Latin borrowed the word as Latin asparagus, and it survives as Modern Greek σπαράγγι (sparángi).^[3]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Cratinus and other comic poets name wild asparagus.^[1][6]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus uses it for the edible shoots of asparagus.^[1][6]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses the form ἀσπάραγος.^[1][6]
• 1st century AD – Dioscorides describes the shoots of asparagus and of other plants.^[1][6]
• 2nd century AD – Phrynichus prescribes ἀσφάραγος as the Attic form.^[1][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Wild asparagus, Asparagus acutifolius.^[1][6]
2. The edible shoots of asparagus.^[1][6]
3. The young shoots of other plants, such as cabbage.^[1][6]

Word family

• ἀσφαραγία (aspharagía)
• ἀσφαραγωνία (aspharagōnía)

Related words

• φάρυγξ (phárunx)
• φάραγξ (pháranx)
• σφαραγέομαι (spharagéomai)
• Latin asparagus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
4. ^ a b c d Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
7. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
8. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son