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From: "J.F. Gannon" <jfgannon@cloud9.net>
To: <classics@u.washington.edu>
References: <3D1472A6.B318ED23@mail.lemoyne.edu>
Subject: Re: etymology
Date: Sat, 22 Jun 2002 12:28:20 -0400
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I have Chantraine DELG handy and he says raphanos/e is the Attic word for
cabbage, sometimes also used for horse-radish! Its etymology is uncertain,
but there is nothing to indicate that it means "easily reared".  It is not
the ancestor of "radish".  Chantraine says that the derivative form
"raphanis" means horse-radish.  The author of the article must have been
away from his books as well.

J.F. Gannon


----- Original Message -----
From: "John M. McMahon" <mcmahon@mail.lemoyne.edu>
To: <CLASSICS@u.washington.edu>
Sent: Saturday, June 22, 2002 8:50 AM
Subject: etymology


> In "Getting to the root of the vegetable" (*International
> Herald Tribune*, 6/19) at
>
> http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0619/p18s04-hfgn.html
>
> this appears re the radish:
>
> "This small, crisp root of the mustard family is poetically
> called 'the  rose of winter' in French. Its name comes from
> the Greek *raphanes* ("easily reared")."
>
> I'm away from (most of) my books, and my question is about
> the etymology of *raphanes*. Aside from the fact that it
> should be *raphanis* (= *Raphanus sativus*), does the
> etymology sound sound right to folks? Can someone comment on
> it? LSJ gives nothing beyond the basic meaning of "radish."
>
> John McMahon
> Classics
> Le Moyne College
>

.