ἀμυγδάλη

See also: αμυγδαλή

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

ἀμύγδᾰλον (amúgdalon)
ἀμύγδᾰλος (amúgdalos)
ἀμυσγέλᾱ (amusgélā), ἀμυσγῠ́λᾱ (amusgúlā)

Etymology

Unknown.

According to Beekes, γδ-σγ alternations in the word's variants indicate "a typical" Pre-Greek substrate word, tentatively reconstructed as *amut^ygala.^[1] He also supports Furnée's comparison with μύκηρος (múkēros, “almond, kind of a nut”) and a couple of Anatolian words related to sweetness, such as Hittite [script needed] (mitgaimi-, “sweet bread”).^[2]

Alternatively, Blažek considers it possible to allow for Semitic provenance, namely to contain the term present in Hebrew שָׁקֵד (šāqḗḏ, “almond”), see there for variants, while accounting for the Greek /al/ by deeming a blend with the term in Hebrew דֶּקֶל (déqel, “palm tree; date”) to participate, imagining derivations *midqalā “place planted with date-palms” and miṯqadā “place planted with almond-trees” and hybridized miṯqalā.^[3]

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /a.myɡ.dá.lɛː/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /a.myɡˈda.le̝/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /a.myɣˈða.li/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /a.myɣˈða.li/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /a.miɣˈða.li/

Noun

ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λη • (amugdálē) f (genitive ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λης); first declension

almond
peach stone

Inflection

First declension of ἡ ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λη; τῆς ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λης (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λη hē amugdálē	τὼ ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λᾱ tṑ amugdálā	αἱ ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λαι hai amugdálai
Genitive	τῆς ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λης tês amugdálēs	τοῖν ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λαιν toîn amugdálain	τῶν ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰλῶν tôn amugdalôn
Dative	τῇ ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λῃ têi amugdálēi	τοῖν ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λαιν toîn amugdálain	ταῖς ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λαις taîs amugdálais
Accusative	τὴν ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λην tḕn amugdálēn	τὼ ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λᾱ tṑ amugdálā	τᾱ̀ς ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λᾱς tā̀s amugdálās
Vocative	ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λη amugdálē	ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λᾱ amugdálā	ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λαι amugdálai
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

ἀμυγδάλινος (amugdálinos)

Descendants

Greek: αμύγδαλο (amýgdalo)
→ Latin: amygdala

References

^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2007) The Pre-Greek loans in Greek‎^[1], page 16
^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “92”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page ἀμυγδάλη
^ Blažek, Václav (2014) “Etymologizing ‘unetymologizable’ Greek dendronyms”, in Graeco-Latina Brunensia‎^[2], volume 19, number 1, pages 41–43