ἀμυγδάλη

See also: αμυγδαλή

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

ἀμύγδᾰλον (amúgdălon)
ἀμύγδᾰλος (amúgdălos)
ἀμυσγέλᾱ (amusgélā), ἀμυσγῠ́λᾱ (amusgŭ́lā)

Etymology

Unknown.

According to Beekes, γδ-σγ alternations in the word's variants indicate "a typical" Pre-Greek substrate word, tentatively reconstructed as *amut^ygala.^[1] He also supports Furnée's comparison with μύκηρος (múkēros, “almond, kind of a nut”) and a couple of Anatolian words related to sweetness, such as Hittite (mitgaimi-, “sweet bread”).^[2]

Alternatively, Blažek considers it possible to allow for Semitic provenance, namely to contain the term present in Hebrew שָׁקֵד (šāqḗḏ, “almond”), see there for variants, while accounting for the Greek /al/ by deeming a blend with the term in Hebrew דֶּקֶל (déqel, “palm tree; date”) to participate, imagining derivations *midqalā “place planted with date-palms” and miṯqadā “place planted with almond-trees” and hybridized miṯqalā.^[3]

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /a.myɡ.dá.lɛː/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /a.myɡˈda.le̝/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /a.myɣˈða.li/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /a.myɣˈða.li/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /a.miɣˈða.li/

Noun

ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λη • (ămŭgdắlē) f (genitive ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λης); first declension

almond
peach stone

Inflection

First declension of ἡ ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λη; τῆς ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λης (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λη hē ămŭgdắlē	τὼ ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λᾱ tṑ ămŭgdắlā	αἱ ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λαι hai ămŭgdắlai
Genitive	τῆς ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λης tês ămŭgdắlēs	τοῖν ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λαιν toîn ămŭgdắlain	τῶν ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰλῶν tôn ămŭgdălôn
Dative	τῇ ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λῃ têi ămŭgdắlēi	τοῖν ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λαιν toîn ămŭgdắlain	ταῖς ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λαις taîs ămŭgdắlais
Accusative	τὴν ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λην tḕn ămŭgdắlēn	τὼ ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λᾱ tṑ ămŭgdắlā	τᾱ̀ς ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λᾱς tā̀s ămŭgdắlās
Vocative	ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λη ămŭgdắlē	ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λᾱ ămŭgdắlā	ᾰ̓μῠγδᾰ́λαι ămŭgdắlai
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

ἀμυγδάλινος (amugdálinos)

Descendants

Greek: αμύγδαλο (amýgdalo)
→ Latin: amygdala

References

^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2007) The Pre-Greek loans in Greek‎, page 16
^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “92”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page ἀμυγδάλη
^ Blažek, Václav (2014) “Etymologizing ‘unetymologizable’ Greek dendronyms”, in Graeco-Latina Brunensia‎, volume 19, number 1, pages 41–43