σαλαμάνδρα

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Ancient Greek

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

Unknown. Suggestions put forward are:

  1. From Pre-Greek, possibly akin σαύρα (saúra, lizard), itself of unclear origin.[1]
  2. Akin to Basque sugalindila, sugelinda, sugalinda, sugalindara, sugelindara, sugelandara, subemandil, sumandil, sugemandila (lizard),[2] assuming both ultimately coming from a common source.

Sound symbolism most likely had a role into the ultimate shape of the term, as it did in many languages in their terms for lizard. Compare also Byzantine Greek σαλαμίνθη (salamínthē, spider), with which it may share the possibly imitative root σαλαμ- (salam-).

Pronunciation

[edit]
 

Noun

[edit]

σᾰλᾰμᾰ́νδρᾰ (salamándraf (genitive σᾰλᾰμᾰ́νδρᾱς); first declension

  1. fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra)

Inflection

[edit]

Derived terms

[edit]
[edit]

Descendants

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 1303
  2. ^ Leschber, Corinna, Bengtson, John D. (2021) “Notes on some Pre-Greek words in relation to Euskaro-Caucasian (North Caucasian + Basque)”, in Journal of Language Relationship[1], volume 19, numbers 1–2, →DOI, page 82

Further reading

[edit]