σαλαμάνδρα

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Unknown. Suggestions put forward are:

  1. From Pre-Greek, possibly akin σαύρα (saúra, “lizard”), itself of unclear origin.[1]
  2. Akin to Basque sugalindila, sugelinda, sugalinda, sugalindara, sugelindara, sugelandara, subemandil, sumandil, sugemandila (“lizard”),[2] assuming both ultimately coming from a common source.

Sound symbolism most likely had a role into the ultimate shape of the term, as it did in many languages in their terms for “lizard”. Compare also Byzantine Greek σαλαμίνθη (salamínthē, “spider”), with which it may share the possibly imitative root σαλαμ- (salam-).

Pronunciation

 

Noun

σᾰλᾰμᾰ́νδρᾰ • (sălămắndră) f (genitive σᾰλᾰμᾰ́νδρᾱς); first declension

  1. fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra)

Inflection

First declension of ἡ σᾰλᾰμᾰ́νδρᾰ; τῆς σᾰλᾰμᾰ́νδρᾱς (Attic)
Case / # Singular Dual Plural
Nominative ἡ σᾰλᾰμᾰ́νδρᾰ
hē sălămắndră 		τὼ σᾰλᾰμᾰ́νδρᾱ
tṑ sălămắndrā 		αἱ σᾰλᾰμᾰ́νδραι
hai sălămắndrai
Genitive τῆς σᾰλᾰμᾰ́νδρᾱς
tês sălămắndrās 		τοῖν σᾰλᾰμᾰ́νδραιν
toîn sălămắndrain 		τῶν σᾰλᾰμᾰνδρῶν
tôn sălămăndrôn
Dative τῇ σᾰλᾰμᾰ́νδρᾳ
tēî sălămắndrāi 		τοῖν σᾰλᾰμᾰ́νδραιν
toîn sălămắndrain 		ταῖς σᾰλᾰμᾰ́νδραις
taîs sălămắndrais
Accusative τὴν σᾰλᾰμᾰ́νδρᾰν
tḕn sălămắndrăn 		τὼ σᾰλᾰμᾰ́νδρᾱ
tṑ sălămắndrā 		τᾱ̀ς σᾰλᾰμᾰ́νδρᾱς
tā̀s sălămắndrās
Vocative σᾰλᾰμᾰ́νδρᾰ
sălămắndră 		σᾰλᾰμᾰ́νδρᾱ
sălămắndrā 		σᾰλᾰμᾰ́νδραι
sălămắndrai
Notes:
  • This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

  • σᾰλᾰμᾰ́νδρειος (sălămắndreios)
  • ? σαλαμίνθη (salamínthē)

Descendants

  • → Latin: salamandra
  • → Old Armenian: սաղամանդր (sałamandr)
  • → Persian: سمندر (samandar)

References

  1. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 1303
  2. ^ Leschber, Corinna, Bengtson, John D. (2021) “Notes on some Pre-Greek words in relation to Euskaro-Caucasian (North Caucasian + Basque)”, in Journal of Language Relationship‎[1], volume 19, numbers 1–2, →DOI, page 82

Further reading

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