Późnolakońska nazwa rzepy
Late Laconian Name for ‘Turnip’

Summary/Abstract: In his work Deipnosophistae (IX 369b), Athenaeus discusses Greek names for ‘turnip’, including Laconian γάστρα and Boeotian ζεκελτίς. Hesychius of Alexandria (5th c. AD) gives two Late Laconian names: γασταία and θικέλιν (‘turnip, Brassica campestris L., syn. Brassica rapa L.’). The former term is an obvious reflex of Lac. γάστρα, while the latter seems to be a dialectal innovation. The present authors suggest that Late Laconian θικέλιν ‘turnip’ (originally ‘small gourd’) represents a diminutive form, derived from Late Laconian *θιᾱ́ f. ‘bottle gourd, Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl’ (= Tsakonian θιάα, θιᾶ [θiˈa] f. ‘bottle, flask; gourd / φιάλη; νεροκολόκυθο’ < Gk. Lac. φιάλᾱ ‘id.’, cf. Attic-Ionic φιάλη f. ‘a broad, flat vessel; bowl for drinking’) by means of the diminutive suffix *-κέλ(λ)ιον (< Latin -cellum). Ancient Greeks used the same name to denote turnips and bottle gourds, see the Hesychian gloss ζακελτίδες· κολοκύνται ἢ γογγυλίδες (‘bottle gourds or turnips’). Athenaeus (IX 369b) gives an analogous pair of lexical correspondences: Boeotian ζεsκελτίδες ‘turnips’ and Thessalian (?) ζακελτίδες ‘bottle gourds’.

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