Etymology of Greek agalma, agallō, agallomai
Abstract
The Greek words agallomai ( = to delight, exult in a thing; + dative) and agalma ( = glory, delight, ornament; image; statue, etc .) have long been etymologically unclear. At least eight hypotheses have been set forth, but none has proved convincing. First, Ahrens (1868: 256) and later Prellwitz (1892: 1) derive agallomai from *mgalio, a reconstructed variant of megalo- ( = big, great). This view is rejected by Schmidt (1895: 152) and treated as highly doubtful by Frisk (1960: 1), while Chantraine (1968: 7) does not even mention it in his list of possible etymologies for agallomai. Except for Prellwitz 1892, Pokomy 1959 is the only etymological work that offers any support to Ahrens’ hypothesis, but due to a confused presentation even this support is far from clear. On p. 366 Pokomy connects agalma with gelaō ( = I laugh) et al., but on p. 708 he connects (’wohl) agalma with megalo-.
Recommended Citation
Cohen, G. L. (1976). Etymology of Greek agalma, agallō, agallomai. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 2, pp. 100-104. Berkeley Linguistics Society.
Meeting Name
2nd Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (1976)
Department(s)
Arts, Languages, and Philosophy
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
2377-1666
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 1976 Berkeley Linguistics Society, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Oct 1976
