ἔμβρυον

Forms

ἔμβρῠον (émbruon) n (genitive ἐμβρῠ́ου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

A compound, from Ancient Greek ἐν (en) + βρύω (brúō), “in” and “to swell, teem”: the thing that grows within.^[2][3][1] Beekes lists it among the compounds of this verb, of the type of ἔμπεδος (émpedos) and ἐγκέφαλος (enképhalos), while Wiktionary takes it from the adjective ἔμβρυος (émbruos), “growing”.^[3][1] The verb itself has no accepted etymology.^[3]

Ancient writers explained it the same way: the Etymologicum Magnum from “swelling inside”, that is growing, and Eustathius as what grows within the belly.^[4][5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it in the Odyssey for a new-born lamb or kid: the Cyclops puts a young one under each of his ewes and goats to suckle.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

From Homer's “young animal” the word passed to the young before birth:^[5] Aeschylus in the Eumenides and the Hippocratic writers use it of the unborn child, and Aristotle uses it constantly in his biology of the embryo in the womb or egg.^[5][3][7] It was mainly a medical and biological word: its occurrences cluster in the 5th–4th century BC and the 2nd century AD, the time of the Hippocratic writings, Aristotle and Galen.^[7]

It was borrowed into Latin as embryo and embryon.^[1] English embryo is from Medieval Latin, recorded from the mid-14th century.^[8] Modern Greek έμβρυο (émvryo) is a learned continuation of the ancient word.^[9][6]

Timeline

• Homer – The Odyssey uses it of a new-born lamb or kid.^[2][7]
• 5th century BC – Aeschylus and the Hippocratic writers use it of the unborn child.^[5][10]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it of the embryo in his biological works, and also of the young animal.^[5][10]
• Mid-14th century – English embryo is recorded, from Medieval Latin.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A new-born young animal, a lamb or kid.^[5][2]
2. An embryo or fetus, the young in the womb.^[5][3]

Related words

• βρύω (brúō)
• ἐν (en)
• Latin embryo
• English embryo

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
3. ^ 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
4. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
7. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
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 Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge