Griechisch ὄνθος – eine Etymologie und ihre ritualökologische Grundlage

Abstract

The Greek noun ὄνθος has thus far defied a satisfactory etymological explanation. The semantics, despite the everything but abundant attestation of the lexeme, have been uncontroversial, and are traditionally assumed to be ‚manure‘. But in an article published in 1994, György Németh showed that the meaning must have been ‚excrement and waste from the processing of sacrificed animals‘. Based on the semantics as specified by Németh, the present article proposes a new etymology for ὄνθος by connecting it with Hittite andaka- ‚loins, lower body parts‘ and ultimately deriving it from Proto-Indo-European *h1n̥dh- ‚below‘ (as in Sanskrit adhás ‚below‘), thereby contributing to the exact phonological reconstruction of the latter.