A note on Greek óμείχω ‘to urinate’ and μοιχός ‘adulterer’

• Authors: Dariusz R. Piwowarczyk
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This article investigates the problem of the etymological connection between the Greek word óμείχω ‘to urinate’ and the agent noun μοιχός ‘adulterer’, the semantics of which has often been termed improbable. It is pointed out that the connection might be made more probable when analyzing the Latin data: the verb meiō, -ere ‘to urinate’ and its meaning in the Latin texts, which is not always restricted to ‘urinating’ but is also used as an obscene word meaning ‘to ejaculate’. We can then postulate that μοιχός was an agent noun of óμείχω in the meaning of ‘to ejaculate’ and this way as ‘adulterer’.

Keywords

EN

etymology; Greek; Latin texts; areal linguistics; linguistic history

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Jagielloński
• Journal: Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 17
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 123-125

Dates

online

2012-05-23

Contributors

author

Dariusz R. Piwowarczyk

Identifiers

DOI

10.4467/20843836SE.12.007.0397