ἶυγξ

Forms

ἶυγξ (îunx), also ἴυγξ, f (genitive ἴυγγος); third declension^[1][2]

Etymology

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek, from Pre-Greek: its suffix ⟨-υγγ-⟩ is typical of the substrate, and it was “without a doubt” a loanword adapted by folk etymology to ἰύζω (iúzō, “to cry aloud”).^[3][4] Frisk thought it was named from that verb, after the bird's cry, though perhaps reshaping a foreign word; it is formed like other names of birds and instruments such as σύριγξ (súrinx).^[5] The CGL, too, calls it perhaps related to ἰύζω.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pindar's fourth Pythian has the wryneck bound to a four-spoked wheel as a love charm.^[2][1] In the Persians Aeschylus uses it for a passionate yearning for lost comrades.^[2][1]

Semantic evolution

The bird was tied to a spinning wheel during spells to win back a lost lover, and so the word came to mean the magic wheel itself and any charm: the refrain of Theocritus' second Idyll is “wryneck, draw that man to my house”.^[3][2][1] Xenophon and Aristophanes use it for the power of attraction.^[2][1] Aristotle describes the bird.^[2] Hesychius explains that the bird was useful for sorcery and that Aphrodite herself used it.^[6]

In the Neoplatonists Proclus and Damascius the iunges are divine powers of the “Chaldaean” theology.^[2][3] Latin borrowed it as iynx, and English took jynx “wryneck” from Modern Latin in the 1640s, and the sense “charm, spell” in the 1690s.^[7]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar describes the wryneck on the magic wheel.^[2][1]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it for yearning.^[2]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle describes the bird.^[2]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theocritus uses it as a refrain in a love spell.^[2]
• 5th century AD – Proclus uses it for “Chaldaean” divine powers.^[2]
• 1640s – English borrows jynx for the wryneck.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The wryneck, Jynx torquilla.^[2][1]
2. A magic wheel to which the wryneck was bound; a love charm.^[2][1]
3. (figurative) A spell, attraction; passionate yearning.^[2][1]
4. (Neoplatonism, plural) Divine powers of the “Chaldaean” theology.^[2][3]

Related words

• ἰύζω (iúzō)
• English jinx

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d 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. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com