246
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Zagorath@aussie.zone 6 points 4 days ago

Interesting that the majority of European languages seem to get it from the Semitic family, rather than from within their fellow Indo-European language family. Etymonline suggests, and the picture reinforces, that it mostly got there via Greek. So I suspect we have Alexander the Great, or possibly earlier interactions between Greek states and Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Arabs, for that borrowing.

[-] zloubida@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago

Κάμηλος (kámēlos) existed in Greek before Alexander adventures (we find it in Herodotus, Agatharchus or the Septuagint); an etymology book I have says it probably comes from Babylonian, but doesn't explain why.

an etymology book I have

Name, please. Inquiring word nerds must know more.

[-] zloubida@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

It's a French book but there's a good etymological dictionary of Greek in English online: https://archive.org/details/etymological-dictionary-of-greek_202306/mode/1up

I'm cool with a book being in French. I have a Spanish language etymological dictionary, too. I kind of collect etymology sources, actually - I've got another etymology book of the English language, and even one of Persian.

Which is why your link is going right into my Favorites list. ❤️

[-] zloubida@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

My book is an older (and cheaper 😅) version of this book: Pierre Chantraine, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque

this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025
246 points (100.0% liked)

Map Enthusiasts

4109 readers
1 users here now

For the map enthused!

Rules:

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS