χελώνη

Traditionally derived from a Proto-Indo-European *gʰel(H)-ewH- (“tortoise, turtle-like animal”), and compared with Proto-Slavic *žely (“turtle, tortoise”); also related to χέλυς (khélus, “tortoise”).

However, Furnee and Chantraine consider the word a Pre-Greek borrowing based on the variant χέλυμνα (khélumna) (which yielded *χελυϝνα (*kheluwna) > χελῡ́νη (khelū́nē), χελύννα (khelúnna)) displaying μ/ϝ consonantal interchange, as well as the variant χελῡ́νη (khelū́nē) having -ῡ́ν- in its form, which is highly unusual if inherited from Proto-Indo-European.

Beekes favors the Pre-Greek derivation, and additionally separates the Slavic words etymologically, considering the Slavic to derive from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃- (“green, yellow”). There doesn't seem to be a good reason to separate the Slavic terms, however; even if not inherited, there is a possibility that the Greek and Slavic terms were borrowed from the same substrate source, in addition to the *ǵʰelh₃- theory being rejected by linguists such as Schmeja.

Another theory by Mastrelli, based on work by Frisk, derives the word from χεῖλος (kheîlos, “lip, jaw”), taking the tortoise as a "sharp-jawed creature".^[1]

χελώνη • (khelṓnē) f (genitive χελώνης); first declension

1. tortoise

• Greek: χελώνα f (chelóna, “tortoise, turtle”)
• → Spanish: quelonio
• → Translingual: Chelonia, Chelonia
  • → English: chelonian

• “χελώνη”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “χελώνη”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• χελώνη in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • penthouse idem, page 603.
  • tortoise idem, page 884.