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Title: Hesychius Γεννὁν or rather Γεννών?
Author(s): GERSHENSON, D.E.
Journal: Revue des Études Juives
Volume: 153    Issue: 1-2   Date: janvier-juin 1994   
Pages: 153-158
DOI: 10.2143/REJ.153.1.2012638

Abstract :
Twice in the dictionary of Hesychius of Alexandria we find the entry γεννὁν, a word which appears in no other Greek source. The first entry is glossed άρχαῖον, “something ancient", or “something primeval", something primeval", and the second, Musurus' emendation of the received text of Hesychius, which has γεννὁν, with another word, κοῖλον, “something hollow". On the other hand a similar, if not identical, word appears in Hebrew and Aramaic in certain Rabbinic texts, where we find גנון in Hebrew, and גנונא or גננא in Aramaic. This word has two meanings in those places where it is “used by the exegete as if it derives from the Greek γενεή ", that is, where it does not translate the Hebrew word חֻפִִָּה, as it often does; the first is עִקָר, “origin, root", and the second is כִּלָּה, canopy hanging". The former recalls άρχαῖον, a derivative form from ἁρχή, “origin, beginning", whereas the latter recalls κοῖλον in sound, since in Greek, by the third century CE the pronunciation of οι was already ü, on the way to ι its modern value.



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