διον(ν)ύς ὁ γυναικίας καὶ παράθηλυς

Grammatical information: m.

Meaning: N. of a god (Il.).

Other forms: Dial. Διώνυσος (ep. lyr.), Διόννυσος (Thess. Cret.), Ζόννυσος (Aeol.), ΔιΕνυσος (Amorgos), Δεύνυσος (Anacr.). Hypoc. voc. Διονῦ (Phryn. Com. 10); cf. διον(ν)ύς ὁ γυναικίας καὶ παράθηλυς H., EM; διοννύς ἡ γυναικεία καὶ θῆλυς ἐσθής (Eust.).

Dialectal forms: Myc. δι-wo-nu-so-jo gen.? \/ Diwonusoio\/. Cf. Here also Hallager et al. 1992 and 1997 dat. diwonuso.

Derivatives: Διονύσιος, PN, with the fem. Διονυσιάς; pl. n. τὰ Διονύσια `the feast for D.' (Att. etc.) with Διονυσιακός (Th.); Διονυσίσκος, dimin., denom. of a person, with bone-like grows on the temples (medic.); denomin. διονυσιάζω `feast the D.' (Luc. u. a.) with Διονυσιασταί m. pl. name of the D.-worshippers (Nisyros etc.; cf. Άπολλωνιασταί s. Άπόλλων).

Origin: PG [a word of Pre-Greek origin]

Etymology: From *Διοσ-νυσος, Schwyzer 283). Dionysos would have come from Thrace. His father would be Zeus, his mother Σεμέλη (s. v.). As the first member seemed the gen. of the Thracian Zeus, Kretschmer ( Einleitung 241f.) assumed in the second member a Thracian word for `son' (found in Thracian names like Νῦσα; further Νῦσαι, Νύσιαι the nymphs, who cared for him) and Nusatita (PN). This interpretation, however, finds no support (s. on νυός). Dunkel, FS Strunk, 1995, 1-21, assumed i.a. that the name contains * suHnu- `son', of which s and n were metathesized. This is, however, improbable. Fur. 250 recalls the PN Διονυτᾶς (beside - σᾶς on a coin from Teos; G. Meyer, Gr. Gramm. (1896) 381) and stresses that the variation τ\/σ points to a non-IE = Pre-Greek word. Attempts to find an IE etym., then, have failed and we have to accept that it is a foreign name. On Dionysos Nilsson Gr. Rel. 1, 564ff.