Κάππαρις

caper

Translated by Ryan Stone16 Mar 2008Vetting: high5 revisions

15 words

[The word is derived] from the [phrase] "to take (ai)/resqai) out of the field (ka/mpou)".

Greek original · Adler’s text

Κάππαρις· παρὰ τὸ ἐκ τοῦ κάμπου αἴρεσθαι.

Betacode

*ka/pparis: para\ to\ e)k tou= ka/mpou ai)/resqai.

cf. Orus in Etymologicum Magnum 490.16.
The etymology offered for kapparis (already kappa 327) is almost certainly false. Greek mp is euphonic anyway, and it is highly unlikely that the nasal would assimilate to a voiceless stop and yield pp. This consonant cluster generally appears from contraction of compounds in which kata/ is the first component and the second begins with p- or in words for plants and animals.
As the word is the name of an indigenous plant, it is more likely to be a loan from the non-Indo-European peoples who inhabited the area before the Greeks.

Revision history5 revisions · last 4 Apr 2019