Ancient Greek edit

Etymology edit

A word without outer-Greek cognates. Note the glosses found in Hesychius βράψαι (brápsai, to gather, spens; consume, hide, hunt) and βράπτειν (bráptein, to eat, hide, make disappear, remove). With a different auslauting velar, we find βρακεῖν (brakeîn, to understand, grasp) and βράξαι (bráxai, to drink, bite, gather). The latter have been compared with Sanskrit मृशति (mṛśati, to touch, handle). However, the variation κ/π cannot be explained in Indo-European terms. Rather, the variants point to Pre-Greek origin.

Nikolaev rejects a pre-Greek etymology and instead reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *merkʷ-, to which he also assigns Latin merx (goods, merchandise) (with delabialization before s generalized throughout its paradigm) and Tocharian A märk- (to take away).[1]

Pronunciation edit

 

Verb edit

μᾰ́ρπτω (márptō)

  1. to take hold of, catch, grasp
  2. to lay hold of, seize, overtake

Inflection edit

Derived terms edit

References edit

  1. ^ Nikolaev, Alexander (2021) “Etyma Graeca II”, in Indo-European Linguistics and Classical Philology, number 25, Institute for Linguistic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 953–976

Further reading edit