From: Carl W. Conrad (cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu)
Date: Tue Mar 07 2000 - 02:47:00 EST
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--></style><title>Re: ARSENOKOITHS/ARRENOKOITHS</title></head><body>
<div>At 11:37 PM -0500 3/6/00, Jason Hare wrote:</div>
<div>>Steven Miller,<br>
><br>
>> << Whoever lies with a male in bed (ARSENOS KOITHN) as
with a woman, both<br>
>> of them have committed an abomination >> (Lev 20:13a
LXX).<br>
>><br>
>> The Greek term ARSENOKOITAI would then appear to be a clear
allusion to<br>
>> ARSENOS KOITHN and thus the context would make it clear that
it refers to a<br>
>> male homosexual.<br>
></div>
<div>>Good call! ´KAI hOS AN KOIMHQHi META
_ARSENOS_KOITHN_ GUNAIKOS...ª<br>
></div>
<div>>This could also explain the second declension eta ending (it
originated as</div>
<div>>a feminine word). Interesting.<br>
</div>
<div>I just want to be sure (pedantically!) there's not a
misunderstanding here, as it appears from your linkage (META
_ARSENOS_KOITHN_ GUNAIKOS) there may well be. In Lev 20:13 LXX
ARSENOS is governed by the preposition META, while the genitive
GUNAIKOS depends upon KOITHN; KOITHN GUNAIKOS is an adverbial
accusative characterizing the predicate of the relative clause,
KOIMHQHi META ARSENOS. One should NOT read ARSENOS KOITHN here as a
single word or even as the origin of a single word. Rather
ARSENOKOITHS is an agent noun--1st declension masculine--of the same
type as POIHTHS, NAUTHS, DESPOTHS, etc. It is compounded of the two
root-elements, of course, ARSENO- and KEI/KOI- (from KEIMAI, of which
KOIMAOMAI is an extended form). So it is not really a "second
declension eta ending"--and in fact, I'm not sure what a
"second declension eta ending" refers to; so far as I know,
ALL nouns of the second declension--masculine, feminine, and neuter
without exception--are O-stems.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>>So there is no other mention of ARRENOKOITHS in secular
Greek? Why, then,<br>
>does it have this alternative spelling (with RR instead of
RS)?<br>
></div>
<div>>Just curious.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>IMHO this is the sort of curiosity that pays very great rewards;
personally, I've come to see through more mysteries of Greek
lexicography and morphology from careful study of regular patterns of
phonological change of consonants and vowels in conjunction than from
any other kind of absorption of the "lore" of Greek
grammar. For that very reason I've always tried to stress the
importance of principles of phonetic change in Greek even in the
first year of teaching/learning Greek.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Smyth (at Perseus web site):</div>
<div><font color="#007700"><b>79.</b> Later Attic has rr for rs of
older Attic:<u><b> tharros</b></u> courage =<u> tharsos</u>,<u>
arrÍn</u> male =<u> arsÍn</u>.<br>
<b>a.</b> But rs does not become rr in the dative plural
(<u>rhÍtor-si</u> orators) and in words containing the suffix -sis
for -<u>tis</u> (ar-sis raising).</font></div>
<div><font face="Times" size="+2" color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div>-- <br>
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<br>
Carl W. Conrad<br>
Department of Classics/Washington University<br>
One Brookings Drive/St. Louis, MO, USA 63130/(314) 935-4018<br>
Home: 7222 Colgate Ave./St. Louis, MO 63130/(314) 726-5649<br>
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu <br>
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/>
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