ἀμυγδάλη

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

  • ἀμύγδᾰλον (amúgdalon)
  • ἀμύγδᾰλος (amúgdalos)
  • ἀμυσγέλᾱ (amusgélā), ἀμυσγῠ́λᾱ (amusgúlā)

Etymology

Unknown.

According to Beekes, variations in spelling indicate "a typical" Pre-Greek substrate word. He also supported Furnée's comparison with μύκηρος (múkēros, almond, kind of a nut) and a couple of Anatolian words related to sweetness.

Alternatively, Blažek considers it possible to allow for Semitic provenance. Even though the well-known root for “almond” is *θiqd-, cf. שָׁקֵד (šāqēd), he hypothesises that it might have been contaminated with the Canaanite Semitic *dáqal- “date”, resulting in a significant semantic shift of the borrowed Phoenician-Hebrew *midqalā “place planted with date-palms”.

Pronunciation

 

Noun

ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λη (amugdálē) f (genitive ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λης); first declension

  1. almond
  2. peach stone

Inflection

Descendants

References

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