The corpus record

εἰρεσῐώνη

eiresione

a song when carrying this twig around

Generated live from the audited corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

What it meant

1. εἰρεσιώνη · eiresiōnē — Beekes

εἰρεσιώνη [f.] ‘an olive or laurel twig adorned with red and white bands and decorated with fruits’, as a symbol of fertility (Ar.), ‘a song when carrying this twig around’ (Hom. Epigr., Plu.), ‘wreath (of honour) (Hell.). VAR Also εἰρυσιώνῃη (Delos 15). folk-etymological reshaping after εἰρύομαι ‘protect’. *ETYM For the formation, cf. the plant names in -wvn in Chantraine 1933: 207f; Strémberg 1940: 81 points … — [Beekes, s.v. εἰρεσιώνη, p. 437]

2. εἰρεσιώνη · eiresiōnē — Chantraine

εἰρεσιώνη Autre hypothèse de Fick, puis Bechtel Gr. Dial. 1,128 de εἶρος, Ἐεἰράφιον «flocon de laine»; peu plausible. — [Chantraine, s.v. εἰρεσιώνη, p. 337]

3. εἰρεσιώνη · eiresiōnē — Frisk

εἰρεσιώνη f. “ein mit roten und weißen Binden geschmückter und mit Früchten behangener Öl- oder Lorbeerzweig’ als Fruchtbarkeitssymbol (Ar.), “ein beim Herumtragen desselben gesungenes Lied’ (Hom. Epigr., Plu.), "Ehrenkranz, Kranz’ (hell. u. sp.); auch εἰρυσιώνη (Delos 18), volksetymologische Umbildung, wohl nach εἰρύομαι ‘schützen’. Zur Bildung vgl. besonders die Pflanzennamen auf -ώνη bei Chantraine Formation … — [Frisk, s.v. εἰρεσιώνη, p. 498]

4. εἰρεσῐώνη · eiresiōnē — LSJ

branch, wound round with wool and hung with fruits

branch of olive or laurel wound round with wool and hung with fruits, dedicated to Apollo and borne about by singing boys at the Πυανόψια and Θαργήλια, while offerings were made to Helios and the Hours, and afterwards hung up at the house-door, Eup. 119, Ar. Eq. 729, V. 399, Pl. 1054, cf. Paus.Gr. Fr. 157, Sch. Ar. ll. cc.

the song itself, Hom. Epigr. 15, Plu. Thes. 22.

II crown

crown hung up in honour of the dead, IG 3.1337, Alciphr. 3.37.

2 wreath

generally, wreath, J. AJ 3.10.4; cf. εἰρυσιώνη.

Where it came from

No etymology authority pointer is recorded for this lemma yet — an honest gap, not an omission. The etymological dictionaries (Beekes, Chantraine, Frisk) are matched incrementally.

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