NR - Principality name
Jennifer Smith
jds-emma at operamail.com
Tue Sep 12 20:40:52 PDT 2000
On 12 Sep 00, at 20:27, Marc Carlson wrote:
> Chris Backus wrote
> > What is the origin of the word griffin? ...
>
> It's an ancient Greek term - the Griffin was thought to
> inhabit Sythia.
Scythia. Where's a reference for that, Diarmaid? I couldn't find any in my
one decent Greek mythology/history book, and I'm curious now. :)
For the etymology-inclined, the Greek word is (in transliterated form)
"gryps" -- blame Latin for the p->ff transition -- and is derived from the
adjective "grypos", which means "curved, hook-nosed." I also note the
noun "grypaetos", which is a combination of "gryps" and "aetos", meaning
eagle. Which makes one wonder -- if "gryps" is a griffin (half lion half
eagle), then what's a "griffin-eagle"?
-Emma "24+ hours of ancient Greek" de Fetherstan
--
Jennifer Smith
jds-emma at operamail.com
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