κριθή

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Ancient Greek

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Uncertain. Traditionally derived from a Proto-Indo-European *gʰérsdʰ-o/eh₂-, with cognates including Latin hordeum, Old High German gersta, but there are phonetic difficulties with this. Rather closer are Albanian drithë, Old Armenian գարի (gari), as if from a Proto-Indo-European *gʰr̥yo-. Or perhaps of Proto-Albanian/Illyrian origin, which may explain the vowel. Egyptian origin has also been considered. Beekes, not convinced by any proposal, suggests an old Wanderwort; others[1] have suggested a substrate. He notes that the Epic form points to an original root noun *krītʰ-.[2]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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κρῑθή (krīthḗf (genitive κρῑθῆς); first declension

  1. (in the plural) barley
    Synonym: ἀκοστή (akostḗ)
  2. pustule on the eyelid, stye
  3. barleycorn (unit of weight)
  4. penis

Inflection

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Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • English: crith

References

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  1. ^ e.g. Demiraj, B. (1997) “drithë”, in Albanische Etymologien: Untersuchungen zum albanischen Erbwortschatz [Albanian Etymologies: []] (Leiden Studies in Indo-European; 7)‎[1] (in German), Amsterdam, Atlanta: Rodopi, page 145
  2. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “κριθή”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 779

Further reading

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