ἀσφόδελος Ancient Greek · revision 3264

+ {{infobox|confidence=probable|formation=borrowing|attested=before the 6th century BC, Hesiod|origins=qfa-sub-grc}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /as.pʰó.de.los/^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /asˈɸo.ðe.los/^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /asˈfo.ðe.los/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''ἀσφόδελος''' (asphódelos) ''m'' (genitive ἀσφόδελου); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ Beekes considers it Pre-Greek, [[der|qfa-sub-grc|-]], as its variants show: [[σφόδελος|tr=sphódelos]], [[σφοδελός|tr=sphodelós]] and [[σποδελός|tr=spodelós]].^(Beekes 2010)^(Beekes 2014) Furnée compared the plant name [[σφονδύλιον|tr=sphondúlion]], which would show prenasalization.^(Beekes 2010)^(Wiktionary) The PHILOGLOSSA database rates the Pre-Greek origin as very reliable, while Frisk called it a foreign word of unknown origin.^(PHILOGLOSSA)^(Frisk 1960) The DGE mentions a possible “Pelasgian” word from a root meaning “to swell”, and a comparison with Sanskrit that meets phonetic difficulties.^(DGE)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Hesiod's ''Works and Days'' names mallow and asphodel as the poor man's food, whose value fools do not know.^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021)^(PHILOGLOSSA) Homer has only the adjective [[ἀσφοδελός|tr=asphodelós]], in the “asphodel meadow” of the underworld where the shades of the heroes walk.^(LSJ 1940)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Ammonius distinguishes the two by their accent: ''ἀσφόδελος'' is the plant, ''ἀσφοδελός'' the place in Homer.^(Ammonius)^(Hesychius) The plant was a cheap food.^(CGL 2021) Aristarchus, cited by Hesychius, says its root was edible.^(CGL 2021)^(Hesychius) Theophrastus and Dioscorides describe it, and the Hippocratic writers, Nicander and Galen use it in medicines, among them antidotes to snakebite.^(DGE)^(LSJ 1940)

+

+ Latin borrowed it as [[m|la|asphodelus]], which gave English ''asphodel'' in the late 14th century; through Medieval Latin ''affodillus'' it is also the source of ''daffodil''.^(Etymonline)^(Wiktionary) Modern Greek [[m|el|ασφόδελος|tr=asfódelos]] is a learned word, and the “asphodel meadow” still stands for the underworld.^(Triantafyllidis 1998)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * Homer – The ''Odyssey'' places the shades of the dead in the “asphodel meadow”.^(LSJ 1940)

+ * Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod names asphodel as a poor man's food.^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021)

+ * 4th century BC – Aristotle mentions the plant.^(LSJ 1940)^(PHILOGLOSSA)

+ * 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus describes it.^(LSJ 1940)^(DGE)

+ * 1st century AD – Dioscorides gives its medical uses.^(LSJ 1940)^(DGE)

+ * Late 14th century – English borrows ''asphodel'' from Latin.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # [[m|en|asphodel]], ''Asphodelus ramosus'', a plant of the [[m|en|lily]] family eaten as cheap food and used in medicine.^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021)^(DGE)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[la|asphodelus]]

+ * [[en|asphodel]]

+ * [[en|daffodil]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ The oxytone adjective ''ἀσφοδελός'' “of asphodel, flowery”, in the Homeric ''κατ᾽ ἀσφοδελὸν λειμῶνα'', was kept apart from the plant name by its accent, as Ammonius and Hesychius note.^(Ammonius)^(Hesychius)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}