Etymological Principles and Dialectological Lexicography: Revised Etymologies in the Vocabulary of the Dialect of Lesbos

Scientific etymological analysis, applicable to both standard and dialectal vocabulary/lexicon, is predicated on core methodological principles that necessitate a word’s cross-regional and diachronic examination. A fundamental principle of etymological research is that successfully identifying a word’s origin requires systematic examination and comparison of all available sources and dialectal data. The aim of this article is to address lacunae in the etymological record of the Lesbian dialect by presenting new data that either resolves longstanding uncertainties or necessitates a scholarly revision of specific word origins. The dialectal words of Lesbos and the etymologies under examination were extracted from dictionaries of the dialect of Lesbos. More specifically, fresh etymological data and new etymological proposals are presented for words from the dialectal vocabulary of Lesbos, such as ɣraɣúða ‘a kind of pot’, karnokáftis ‘stingy’, kumsú/kumpsú ‘gossiper, mocker’, lulúða ‘silly woman’, malastúfa ‘oakum’, tsiróɲ ‘fork’, fáirop ‘order to do something immediately’, psirúts ‘a traditional crème’, xaxóʎs ‘rowdy, noisy person’, and xʎimídza ‘purslane’.