πύρνος

The word is obsolete and without etymology. It was compared with πορύναν (porúnan, “kneaded mass, cake”) and τορύνη (torúnē, “kind of grain”) by Fick, adducing Sanskrit चर्वति (carvati, “to eat, chew”) and चूर्ण (cūrṇa, “dust, powder”) as well. This would lead to the reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European *kʷeru-, which requires a pre-form *τερύνα (*terúna) for τορύνη (torúnē). However, this leaves the υ-vowel in πύρνος unexplained. According to Szemerényi, this word is syncopated from πύρινος (púrinos, “made of wheat”), but this is contestable for several reasons. Furnée connects the word with Basque apur (“crumb”); this etymology seems unreliable, but in any case, the word may well be Pre-Greek.

πῠ́ρνος • (púrnos) m (genitive πῠ́ρνου); second declension

1. morsel, bit

   Synonym: ψωμός (psōmós)

2. kind of one-seeded cereal

• “πύρνος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• 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
• Hesychius' Lexicon: π