[B-Greek] SPEUDW's pre-history

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Fri Mar 10 07:02:37 EST 2006


On Mar 8, 2006, at 1:34 PM, Steve Westfall wrote:

> An older lexicon (Thayer) says that Greek SPEUDW is "cognate with  
> German
> sich sputen" and also refers to English "speed".
>
> The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language indicates  
> that
> English "speed" is related to the Indo-European root SPE.  Is the  
> Greek
> SPEUDW thought to share that same Indo-European origin?

Nobody's tackled this -- perhaps because nobody takes very seriously  
the likelihood of NT Koine lexicography being determined by  
etymology. But for curiosity's sake only, I looked up SPEUDW in the  
only etymological dictionary I have kept in my meager retiree's  
library: J.B. Hofmann, Etymologisches Woerterbuch des Griechischen  
(Munich, 1950). It suggests a root form *SPEU-D- expanded from *SPEU-  
and possible links to other Greek words SFUDOW, "be in vigorous good  
health," ESFUDWMENOS, meaning something like "having pigged- 
out" (from ravenous appetite). I don't suppose there's any  
association whatsoever, but it's often struck me that Latin STUDEO  
and STUDIUM overlap, to some extent, Greek SPEUDW and SPOUDH.

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/




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