μολυβδ-ῖτις

μολυβδ-ῖτις, ιδος, ἡ, ἄμμος a kind of sand from which λιθάργυρος is obtained, Dsc.5.87, Plin.HN33.106.

Grammatical information: m.

Meaning: `lead' (IA.)

Other forms: μόλιβος (Λ 237, also hell. prose), also μόλυβος (LXX), μόλιβδος (Plu.), βόλυβδος (Att. defixion-tablet), βόλιμος (Delph., Epid.), βόλιβος (Rhod. in περι-βολιβῶσαι)

Dialectal forms: Myc. moriwodo.

Compounds: Compp., e.g. μολυβδο-χοέω `melt lead, soldier with lead' (Ar., inscr.).

Derivatives: A. Subst.: μολύβδ-αινα f. `weight of lead, plummet, ball of lead.' (Ω 80, Hp., Arist.), `a plant, Plumbago europaea' (Plin.; Strömberg Pflanzennamen 26); as ἄκαινα a.o. (Schwyzer 475, Chantraine Form. 109); - ίς f. `id.' (Att., hell.); - ιον n. `lead weight' (Hp.), μολίβ-ιον n. `leaden pipe' (Antyll. ap. Orib.), - ίδιον (Hero); μολυβδ-ῖτις f. `lead-sand' (Dsc., Plin.; Redard 57 f.); - ωμα `lead-work' (Moschio ap.Ath.); μολυβᾶς, - ᾶτος m. `leadworker' (pap.). -- B. Adj.: μολύβδ-ινος ( μολίβ-) `of lead' (IA, Paul. Aeg.), - οῦς ( μολιβ-, μολυβ-) `id.' (Att., hell.); - ώδης `lead-like' (Dsc., Gal.), - ικός `of lead' (gloss.), μολυβ-ρόν τὸ μολυβοειδές H. -- C. Verbs: μολυβδόομαι ( μολιβ-) `be fitted out with lead weights etc.' (Arist.) with - ωσις (gloss.); περι-βολιβῶσαι `frame with lead' (Rhod.); μολυβδ-ιάω `have the colour of lead' of the face, as symptom of disease (Com. Adesp.). -- Here also μολβίς στάθ-μιόν τι ἑπταμναῖον H. with loss of an inner ι or υ (Solmsen Wortforsch. 60 n. 2).

Origin: IE [Indo-European] [not in Pok.] * mergʷ- `dark'

Etymology: Because of its variants the word was generally considered an Anatalian loan. βολιμος will be due to metathesis, βολιβος to assimilation in this form. The oldest forms are clearly μόλιβος and μόλυβδος. It is known that - ιβ- occurred against - υβδ-. Beside μόλυβδος and μόλιβος (- υ-) we have now Myc. \/moliwdos\/; μολιβδος is now also found in Olbia about 500 B.C. The Mycenaean form can easily be the oldest: i changed to u before w(d). -- Connection with Lat. plumbum cannot be explained. The word can also not come from the West, as lead was much older in Greece. Nor can Bask. berún `lead' be connected with Myc. moliwdos. - The word has been compared with Lydian marivda-, of which we now know that it meant `dark' (as in E. murk(y)); its Hitt. equivalant is mark(u)waya-; it would be an IE word from the root * mergʷ-, * morgʷiyo- giving * marwida-, which may have become * marwda- with syncope, which again might have become * marwida- by anaptyxis; for lead as `dark' cf. Lat. plumbum nigrum. Thus Melchert in Hittites, Greeks and their neighborrs in Ancient Anatolia, ed. Bachvarova, Collins and Rutherford (2005?).

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