On Tue, 30 Dec 2003 09:17:40 +0000, P&G <
petegray@...> wrote:
>>what the
>> hell is *de:?!
>
>It is not clear. A different suggestion is that it is for Demo-meter,
>nothing to do with earth at all. There is no independent evidence for da:
>meaning "earth" in Doric or elsewhere.
From the Perseus site:
Liddell-Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon:
da , expld. by the Sch.A.Ag.1072, EM60.8 as Dor. for ga, gê, in Trag.
(lyr.) pheu da, E.Ph.1296, Ar.Lys.198; oioi da pheu A.Eu.874 ; aleu' a da
Id.Pr.567 ; ototototoi popoi da Id.Ag.1072 ; ou dan no by earth, Theoc.4.17
(v.l. gan):--prob. an exclamation of horror.
Liddell-Scott, An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon:
da, explained by the Scholl. as Dor. for gê, in the phrases da pheu, pheu
da Aesch., Eur.; ou dan no by earth, Theocr. But it is prob. that da or Da
is a doric voc. of Dan Zan (i. e. Zên Zeus), and Dan acc. = Zên (i. e.
Zêna).
There is also Homeric da-pedon "level floor". Merry/Riddell/Monro,
Commentary on the Odyssey:
The floor on which the sports were taking place was artificially levelled
(tuktôi). Some refer da in dapedon to gê, cp. aleu ô da, but it seems
better to refer it with Curtius (548) to dia in the sense of thoroughly.
Compare daphoinos, daskios, zatrephês. Then dapedon will mean a very solid
floor.
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...