μαλθακός

• μολθακός (molthakós) — Aeolic

Formation like μαλακός (malakós, “soft, tender”); the two synonymous adjectives may have influenced each other. Traditionally derived from Proto-Indo-European *mel- (“soft”), like Proto-Germanic *malskaz (“soft”) and Sanskrit मर्धति (mardhati, “to abandon, neglect”). However, Beekes considers the word Pre-Greek, because *ml̥dʰ- would yield *βλαθ- (*blath-). Moreover, this word cannot be cognate with μαλακός (malakós), as the latter must go back to *mlh₂-ek and there is no trace of the h₂- in the former.

μᾰλθᾰκός • (malthakós) m (feminine μᾰλθᾰκή, neuter μᾰλθᾰκόν); first/second declension

1. soft, tender, mellow
2. (figuratively) weak, feeble
3. gentle, mild, mellow

• “μαλθακός”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “μαλθακός”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “μαλθακός”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• μαλθακός in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• μαλθακός in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN