December theme: Pre-Classical Mediterranean 🏝️

Introduction

Next week, the sister of Phoenix.

Teaser

Phoenicia, phoenix, Tisiphone

Full Text

• Egyptian fnḫ carpenter, woodcutter

  • Egyptian fnḫw woodcutters, Canaanites, Syrians ^[1]

    • Mycenaean Greek 𐀡𐀛𐀑𐀍 po-ni-ki-jo trade commodity of some sort ^[2]

      • Ancient Greek φοῖνῐξ phoînix Phoenician, purple or crimson, date palm, a guitar-like instrument from Phoenicia, phoenix

        • Latin Poenus a Phoenician, a Carthaginian

          • Latin pūnicus Carthaginian, Phoenician

            • English Punic
        • Latin phoenīx phoenix

          • English phoenix
        • Ancient Greek Φοινίκη/Φοίνῑσσᾰ Phoiníkē/Phoínīssa Phoenicia

          • Latin Phoenīcia

            • English Phoenicia
        • Berber

          • Tuareg ⵜⴼⵉⵏⵗ tfingh Tifinagh, a Berber writing system ^[3]
    • Northwest Semitic
• Afro-Asiatic

  • Egyptian wbn to shine, to rise in brilliance

    • Egyptian bnw heron god of rebirth, phoenix

      • Ancient Greek φοῖνῐξ phoînix Phoenician, purple or crimson, date palm, a guitar-like instrument from Phoenicia, phoenix
  • Semitic

    • Northwest Semitic

      • Canaanite

        • Hebrew יפע yapa' to shine, to radiate, to be beautiful

          • Hebrew פועה Puah personal name
    • Semitic

      • Central Semitic

        • Arabic فُوَّه fuwwah madder, reddish-purple
        • Northwest Semitic

          • Canaanite

            • Hebrew פֻוָ֕ה fuweh a clan name?
            • Phoenician

              • Mycenaean Greek 𐀡𐀛𐀑𐀍 po-ni-ki-jo trade commodity of some sort ^[2]

                • Ancient Greek φοῖνῐξ phoînix Phoenician, purple or crimson, date palm, a guitar-like instrument from Phoenicia, phoenix
            • Arabic فُوَّه fuwwah madder, reddish-purple
• Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰen- to strike, to slay, to kill ^[4]

  • Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰóno-s murder

    • Hellenic

      • Ancient Greek φόνος phónos murder

        • Greek φόνος fónos murder
        • Ancient Greek Τισιφόνη Tisiphónē Avenging-Murder, the Fury who punishes crimes of murder

          • English Tisiphone
    • Germanic *banô murder

      • West Germanic

        • Old English

          • English bane
  • Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰonyó-s murderous, baneful

    • Hellenic

      • Ancient Greek φοινός phoinós bloody, blood-red, blood thirsty, deadly

        • Ancient Greek φοῖνῐξ phoînix Phoenician, purple or crimson, date palm, a guitar-like instrument from Phoenicia, phoenix

Visual

Collected English words

Punic, phoenix, Phoenicia, Tisiphone, bane

Footnotes

1. ^

   Egypt got much of its lumber in trade from Canaan/Lebanon

2. ^

   There are many theories about what po-ni-ki-jo might refer to. In context, all that can be deduced for certain is that it is a trade commodity. But it is formally equivalent to later Ancient Greek φοῖνῐξ phoînix.

   Ancient Greek φοῖνῐξ phoînix means a number of things, but probably at heart means "Phoenician" and from there is used to refer to a number of things associated with the Phoenicians: Tyrean purple (the famous dye of the Pheonicians), date palm trees, dates, a Phoenician musical instrument, and the phoenix.

   It is probably a conflation of two or more etymologies, including Egyptian fnḫw: "Canaanites", Greek φοινός phoinós: "bloody, blood-red", Egyptian bnw: "a divine bird associated with rebirth", and/or a Semitic root which also gave Arabic فُوَّه fuwwah: "madder, reddish-purple". One or more of these sources might come from one of the others.

3. ^

   Tifinagh is a Berber writing system descendant of the Phoenician alphabet. The name is likely a Berberised feminine plural cognate of "Punic", (ti- is a feminine nominalization prefix in Berber languages); thus tifinagh reasonably means "the Phoenician (letters)".

4. ^

   This is a very abbreviated treatment of PIE *gʷʰen-, which is a large and important family itself, and probably not the most important of the sources conflated into φοῖνῐξ phoînix.