[B-Greek] SPEUDW's pre-history
Steve Westfall
steve.westfall at comcast.net
Fri Mar 10 13:22:51 EST 2006
I'm aware that it has no bearing on word meaning. But that shouldn't
prevent a legitimate interest in etymology for its own sake, even if some
have abused it. I'm curious to know what you consider to be reliable and
up-to-date resources for etymology in both Koine and Classical Greek.
Thanks.
Steve Westfall
-----Original Message-----
From: Carl W. Conrad [mailto:cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu]
Sent: Friday, March 10, 2006 6:03 AM
To: Steve Westfall
Cc: B Greek
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] SPEUDW's pre-history
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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