μαργαρίτης

See also: Μαργαρίτης

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

μαργᾰρῑ́δης (margărī́dēs) — Ionic

Etymology

Borrowed from Indo-Iranian.^[1] According to Beekes, possibly from Proto-Iranian *mŕ̥ga-ahri-ita- (“oyster”, literally “born from the shell of a bird”), ^[2] in which case ultimately related to *mr̥gáh (“bird”).

Compare Middle Persian [script needed] (mwlwʾlyt' /⁠morwārīd⁠/) (whence Persian (marvârid)), Sogdian [script needed] (marγārt), Sanskrit मञ्जरी (mañjarī), and Avestan 𐬨𐬆𐬭𐬆𐬌𐬌𐬀 (mərəiia).

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /mar.ɡa.rǐː.tɛːs/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /mar.ɡaˈri.te̝s/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /mar.ɣaˈri.tis/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /mar.ɣaˈri.tis/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /mar.ɣaˈri.tis/

Noun

μαργᾰρῑ́της • (margărī́tēs) m (genitive μαργᾰρῑ́του); first declension

pearl
a type of Egyptian plant

Inflection

First declension of ὁ μαργᾰρῑ́της; τοῦ μαργᾰρῑ́του (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ὁ μαργᾰρῑ́της ho margărī́tēs	τὼ μαργᾰρῑ́τᾱ tṑ margărī́tā	οἱ μαργᾰρῖται hoi margărîtai
Genitive	τοῦ μαργᾰρῑ́του toû margărī́tou	τοῖν μαργᾰρῑ́ταιν toîn margărī́tain	τῶν μαργᾰρῑτῶν tôn margărītôn
Dative	τῷ μαργᾰρῑ́τῃ tōî margărī́tēi	τοῖν μαργᾰρῑ́ταιν toîn margărī́tain	τοῖς μαργᾰρῑ́ταις toîs margărī́tais
Accusative	τὸν μαργᾰρῑ́την tòn margărī́tēn	τὼ μαργᾰρῑ́τᾱ tṑ margărī́tā	τοὺς μαργᾰρῑ́τᾱς toùs margărī́tās
Vocative	μαργᾰρῖτᾰ margărîtă	μαργᾰρῑ́τᾱ margărī́tā	μαργᾰρῖται margărîtai
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

μάργαρον (márgaron) (back-formation)

Descendants

Greek: μαργαρίτα (margaríta)
→ Aramaic: מרגניתא, מַרְגָּלִיתָא (margālīṯā)
- Classical Syriac: ܡܪܓܢܝܬܐ
- → Hebrew: מַרְגָּלִית (margalít)
→ English: margarite
→ Gothic: 𐌼𐌰𐍂𐌹𐌺𐍂𐌴𐌹𐍄𐌿𐍃 (marikreitus)
→ Latin: margarīta (see there for further descendants)

References

^ “Persian Loanwords and Names in Greek”, in Encyclopaedia Iranica‎^[1], 23 February 2024 (last accessed), archived from the original on 17 May 2017
^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “μαργαρίτης”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 904-5

“μαργαρίτης”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“μαργαρίτης”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
μαργαρίτης in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
G3135 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
μαργαρίτης, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011

[1] “Persian Loanwords and Names in Greek”, in Encyclopaedia Iranica‎^[1], 23 February 2024 (last accessed), archived from the original on 17 May 2017

[2] Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “μαργαρίτης”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 904-5

[1]

[2]