ἀταλός

Leumann derives this adjective from ἀταλάφρων (ataláphrōn, “tender-minded”), which is the negation of ταλάφρων (taláphrōn, “patient of mind”). Although it explains the compositional vowel α-, the whole analysis is too complicated. Derivation from ἄττα (átta, “father”) seems improbable too. Furnée compares ἀζαλαί (azalaí, “young and tender”) and concludes that this is a Pre-Greek word, which is quite probable.

ἀτᾰλός • (atalós) m (feminine ἀτᾰλή, neuter ἀτᾰλόν); first/second declension

1. (of youthful persons) tender, delicate
2. (of elders) tremulous, shaking, trembling

• “ἀταλός”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ἀταλός”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• ἀταλός in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• ἀταλός in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (2006–2024)
• 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