ἀφνεό-

Grammatical information: n.

Meaning: `wealth' (Il.). On the meaning Hemelrijk, Πενία, diss. Utrecht 1926.

Other forms: m. (after πλοῦτος, Fehrle Phil Woch. 46, 700f).

Compounds: εὐηφενής (Il.; the better attested v. l. εὐηγενής is hardly correct; Bechtel, Lex.); also in the PN Δι-, Κλε-, Τιμ-αφένης.

Derivatives: (with loss of vowel and remarkable final stress) ἀφνειός (Il.), later ἀφνεός `rich' (Il.). From here retrograde ἄφνος n. (Pi. Fr. 219).

Origin: IE [Indo-European] * h₂bʰen- `rich'

Etymology: Uncertain. The connection with Skt. ápnas- n. `possessions, riches' (Bréal MSL 13, 382f.; cf. ὄμπνη; also Pisani Ist. Lomb. 73, 515) is now generally rejected (also as * apsnos). - The word was one of the corner stones of the Pelasgian theory, which can now be abandoned (also Heubeck's variant, the Minoan-Minyan language: Praegraeca 70). The agreement with Hitt. happina(nt)- `rich', is remarkable. The postulated verb hap-(zi) is improbable (Puhvel HED 3, 124f). The Hittite word could be IE (Szemerényi Glotta 33, 1954, 275 - 282). Puhvel's h₁op- is impossible ( h₁- disappears in Hittite); but Lat. opulentus \< * op-en-ent- is improbable: - ulentus is a frequent suffix in Latin, and - ant is very productive in Hittite so that it cannot be projected back into PIE; with it disappears the explanation of - ulentus (I also doubt the dissmilation n - nt, with t after the second n; there are other difficulties in the theory, as the author indicated); the - en- has no clear function and is not found elsewhere after op-; thus the connection of opulentus with the Hittite word disappears. - Irene Balles (HS 110, 1997) starts from *n̥-gʷʰn-o-, parallel to - io- in Skt. ághnyā- `(the valuable animal which is) not to be killed'. (She explains the adj., and the accent, from *n̥gʷʰn-es-o- \> ἀφνεό-, with metrical lengthening in Homer). But she has to explain the full grade from analogy after σθένος, which is improbable; the whole construction is not convincing. - The Greek word is rather IE (cf. archaic εὐηφενής). For Greek a root * h₂bʰen- is the obvious reconstruction. The accent and the form ἀφνεός may be explained following Balles: *h₂bʰnes-ó-, with ablaut as in ἄλγος - ἀλεγεινός (metr. lengthening in Homer is probable as *ἀφνεοιο is impossible in the hexameter and *ἀφνεος, -ν etc. are difficult). Thus the word seem perfectly IE. It cannot be connected with the Hittite word (reading *ḫpina- is doubtful). A loan from Anatolian would have κ-, the φ would be unclear, the s-stem, and the adjective.

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