μολοβρός

Numerous doubtful proposals have been advanced. In antiquity, it has been linked to μολεῖν (moleîn), aorist infinitive of βλώσκω (blṓskō, “to go or come”), interpreting the word as "from going, and having recourse to food", which is clearly folk etymology. Neumann derives it from an unattested word *μολος (*molos), related to Sanskrit मल (mala, “dirt, filth”), and the root *gʷerh₃- (“to eat, devour”). Although this is clearly better than earlier proposals, it does not explain the second element -βρος. According to Beekes, it is rather a Pre-Greek word. Furnée compares κολόβριον (kolóbrion, “young of a swine”), suggesting an interchange μ/κ.

μολοβρός • (molobrós) m (genitive μολοβροῦ); second declension

1. term of abuse or depreciation applied to a beggar, of uncertain meaning

• “μολοβρός”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “μολοβρός”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “μολοβρός”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• μολοβρός in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• μολοβρός 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