τέρνακα: An Indo-European Ghost?

CARLO MARIA PERTICA Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia ORCID id: orcid.org/0009-0001-3385-5828 Fields of research: Indo-European and Greek nominal system and etymology. DOI: doi.org/10.35321/all88-13 τέργαχα: AN INDO-EUROPEAN GHOST? τέργαχα: indoeuropietiškas žodis vaiduo klis? ANNOTATION This note aims to point out how Hesychian τέργαχα ‘stalk of the cardoon’, despite the noteworthy closeness to other Indo-European forms, should be rather considered a simple misspelling for an original acc. sing. πτέρνικα from Theophrastus’ Historia Plantarum. Nonetheless, the possibility that in Theophrastus’ text was actually attested τέρναξ, the Greek adaptation of an Iranian phytonym, cannot be completely ruled out. KEYWORDS: Indo-European etymology, Hesychius, textual criticism, Iranian languages. ANOTACIJA Šio teksto tikslas yra paaiškinti, kodėl Hesichijaus τέργαχα ‘dygiojo artišoko stiebas’, nepaisant akivaizdaus panašumo į kitas indoeuropietiškas formas, turėtų būti laikomas paprasčiausia originalios vienaskaitos galininko formos πτέρνικα iš Teofrasto veikalo Historia Plantarum rašybos klaida. Nepaisant to, nereikėtų atmesti galimybės, kad Teofrasto veikale iš tikrųjų buvo paliudyta forma τέρναξ – iranėnų fitonimo adaptacija graikų kalboje. ESMINIAI ŽODŽIAI: indoeuropietiška etimologija, Hesichijus, teksto kritika, iranėnų kalbos. In Hesychius’ Lexicon, under the letter τ (545), there is a lemma τέργαχα: τῆς χάκτου τοῦ φυτοῦ καυλός ‘(lit.) stem of the plant of the cardoon’. Alois Walde and Julius Pokorny (1927: 641) were the first to associate this hapax with Skt. tr̥ṇa- [n.] ‘grass, straw’, Go. paurnus [m.] ‘thorn, ON born [m.] Įžvalgos / Insights 291 CARLO MARIA PERTICA ‘id.’, OHG dorn [m.] ‘id.’, OCS trnъ [m.] ‘id.’, etc. Semantically, the connection seemed straightforward due to the thorny nature of the cardoon plant, even if, on the formal side, it was necessary to assume quite an articulated development. Hjalmar Frisk (1970: 881) tried to solve this problem hypothesizing that the phytonym τέϱναξ resulted from the remodeling on δόναξ, –ακος [m.] ‘reed’ of an original *τέϱνον / τέϱνος, outcome of a full-grade form of *tṛnos (or *tṛnom) ‘thorn’.1 On the other side, Pierre Chantraine (1968: 1107) and Robert Beekes (2010: 1470) opted to remain cautious about the actual Indo-European origin of this word.2 Nevertheless, a more likely solution to this little linguistic riddle has been pointed out by Peter A. Hansen and Ian C. Cunningham in their edition of the Hesychian text (2009: 30). The “origin” of this word should be, in fact, rather connected to the misspelling of an original acc. sing. πτέϱνιχα ‘thistle stem’ from Theophrastus’ Historia Plantarum (4th–3rd century BC; Thphr. HP 6.4.11): “Ἕτερον δὲ καυλὸν ὀρθὸν ἀφῆσιν, ὃν καλοῦσι πτέϱνιχα” ‘There is another kind which sends up an erect stem, called the pternix’. The similarity of the two forms, the accusative case, together with the textual context, strongly argue in favor of considering τέϱνακα a monstrum originating from πτέϱνιχα, a derivative of πτέϱνη [f.] ‘heel’.3 The presence of πτέϱνιχα in this passage is, moreover, confirmed by Athenaeus’ Deipnosophistae (3rd century AD; 2.70e). The fact that this word is listed under the letter τ poses no problem since it is certainly possible that Hesychius (5th or 6th century AD), if not an earlier lexicographer utilized by him, found this word in a Theophrastus’ or Athenaeus’ already corrupted text (note how πτέϱνιχα is not elsewhere present in the Lexicon). For the sake of completeness, an alternative scenario should, however, be taken into account. The suffixal extension –ακ– strongly resembles the one in *–aka of the Iranian languages and, moreover, traces of a hypothetical Iranian protoform *trn-akaare found in some Middle Iranian languages: cf. Khotan Saka tarra ‘herb, grass’, Zor. Pahlavi tlk /tarrak/ ‘garden herbs’, and, then, Classical Persian tarrah ‘Schnittlauch’ (Bailey 1979: 123; Mayrhofer 1992: 664). The word is unfortunately not known in Avestan, where in the sequence CR₂nV 1 Hypothesis accepted e.g. in Mallory & Adams 1997: 575. 2 More bibliography at Lloyd, et al. 1998: s. v. dorn1. 3 Seemingly on the model of other phytonyms in –ιξ such as ἄρπιξ / ἄϱπιξ ‘type of thornbush’, etc. Cf. Rigobianco 2021: 18 for a case of modeling of phytonyms after lexical connections in Ancient Greek. 292 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXVIII τέϱναχα: An Indo-European Ghost? the resonants rn are preserved without any assimilation (cf. varanā- ‘animal wool’ < *(h₂)ulh₁-neh₂-). Considering this information (as well as the fact that πτέρυχα itself is not elsewhere attested), one might certainly also conceive that in Historia Plantarum 6.4.11 was originally reported τέϱναχα, a Greek adaptation of some Old Persian or Median form outcome of PIr. *tṛn-aka-.⁴ The Hesychian Lexicon would, thus, be the sole witness of the correct lesson. To conclude, the reconstruction of Core Proto-Indo-European *tṛ̥nos / *tṛ̥nom ‘thorn’ does not change drastically after the reflections hereby provided: it is simply no longer required to somehow assume an unsorted full-grade Greek formation. PIE *tṛ̥nos [m.] / *tṛ̥nom [n.] ‘thorn’ PIIr. *tṛ̥nam [n.] ‘thorn; blade of grass’ (borrowed into Proto-Uralic, cf. *tarna in Holopainen 2019: 273–274) PNur. (Strand 2011) Western and Northeastern Katē tâ'i ‘thorn; bramble’ Southeastern Katē tâṉi ‘id.’ PIAr. *tṛ̥nam Skt. tṛ̥na- [n.] ‘grass, herb’, etc. PIr. *trn-(aka-) Khotan Saka tarra- ‘herb, grass’, etc. BSl. *tírnas [m.] ‘thorn’ PSl. *tъ̄rnъ [m.] ‘id.’ (Derksen 2008: 505) OCS trъnъ ‘ἄκανθα’, etc. PGm. *burna- [m.] ‘thorn, briar’ (Kroonen 2013: 552–553) Go. þaurnus [m.] ‘thorn’ (< *þurnu-), ON þorn [m.] ‘id.’, etc. ⁴ OP kārataka- ‘traveler; foreign mercenary’ ~ Gr. κάδδαξ, -ηος ‘Persian term for foreign mercenaries’ (Hinz 1975: 148) would be a good analogous case. The preservation of the cluster rn and the velar suffix is confirmed by Elamite transcriptions of Old Persian and Median words and anthroponyms: cf., among others, šī-ra-bar-na /čīra-farnah-/ , i.e. ‘whose Fortune is beautiful’ (Hinz 1975: 76) for the rn cluster and šī-ra-ak-qa /čīrakā/ (Hinz 1975: 77) for the velar suffix. Įžvalgos / Insights 293 CARLO MARIA PERTICA REFERENCES Bailey Harold W. 1979: Dictionary of Khotan Saka, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Beekes Robert 2010: Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of L. van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill. Chantraine Pierre 1968: Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque, Paris: Klincksieck. Derksen Rick 2008: Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden, Boston: Brill. Frisk Hjalmar 1970: Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bd. 2, Heidelberg: Carl Winter. Hansen Peter A., Cunningham Ian C. 2009: Hesychii Alexandrini Lexicon, vol. 4 (T–Ω), Berlin: De Gruyter. Hinz Walther 1975: Altiranisches Sprachgut der Nebenüberlieferungen, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. Holopainen Sampsa 2019: Indo-Iranians borrowings in Uralic, Helsinki: Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki: PhD dissertation. Kroonen Guus 2013: Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden, Boston: Brill. Lloyd Albert L., Lühr Rosemarie, Springer Otto 1998: Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen 2, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. Mallory James P., Adams Douglas Q. 1997: Encyclopedia of Indo-European culture, London: Fitzroy Dearborn. Mayrhofer Manfred 1992: Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen 1, Heidelberg: Carl Winter. Rigobianco Luca 2021: I fitonimi φέως, ἱππόφεως, ἱπποφαές e ἱππόφαιστον: una histoire des mots. – Archivio Glottologico Italiano 106, 195–221. Strand Richard 2011: Lexicons of the Hindu-Kush: Kâmvîri, Kâtʽa-vari, Kalasa-alâ, Sañu-vi:ri, Ačarêtâ, Bhaṭesa-zib, and Paxtó, on-line version. Available at: http://nuristan.info/lngFrameL.html [retrieved 2023-04-09]. Walde Alois, Pokorny Julius 1927: Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen, Berlin, Leipzig: De Gruyter. 294 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXVIII τέϝναχα: An Indo-European Ghost? Acknowledgments: I am greatly indebted to the anonymous Indo-Europeanist reviewer(s) for pointing out a possible Iranian solution, as well as to Dr. Luca Rigobianco and Simone Marcazzan for their extremely helpful feedback. τέϝναχα: indoeuropietiškas žodis vaiduoklis? SANTRAUKA Graikų kalbos žodis τέϝναχα (gal.) ‘dygiojo artišoko stiebas’, Hesichijaus hapax, anksčiau buvo įvairiai siejamas su indoeuropiečių prokalbės pamatinio šaknies balsių kaitos laipsnio variantu *tr̥nos / *tr̥nom ‘spyglis’, paliudytu indoiranėnų, slavų ir germanų kalbose. Šio palyginimo reikėtų atsisakyti, nes tikėtina, kad τέϝναχα reikėtų sieti su tekstu, kuriame buvo padaryta πτέρνιχα (gal.) ‘usnies stiebas’ (vedinys iš Teofrasto πτέρνη ‘kulnas’) rašybos klaida. Vis dėlto, negalima atmesti galimybės, kad Teofrasto tekste originali forma buvo τέϝναχα — iranėnų fitonimo, kilusio iš iranėnų prokalbės žodžio *tr̥n-aka- ‘žolė’ (kurio pėdsakai randami kai kuriose vidurio iranėnų kalbose), adaptacija graikų kalboje. Tai reikštų, kad Hesichijus buvo vienintelis originalios formos liudininkas. Įteikta 2023 m. balandžio 11 d. CARLO MARIA PERTICA 1 Traversa XXIV Vill. Prealpino, 25136 Brescia (BS), Italy [email protected] Įžvalgos / Insights 295