- Έρῑνῡς
- Έρῑνύ̄ς, -ύοςGrammatical information: f.Meaning: name of a revenging god(dess), orig. perh. the revenging soul of the the murdered man; appellativ. `revenge, curse' (Il.), name of Demeter in Arcadia (Antim., Call., Paus. 8, 25, 6).Other forms: On the length of the υ see LSJ. Εριννυς rejected by LSJDialectal forms: Myc. Erinu.Derivatives: ἐρινυώδης `like the E.' (Plu.); ἐρινύω = θυμῳ̃ χρῆσθαι (Arc., Paus. l. c., EM), cf. Bechtel Dial. 1, 390.Origin: PG [a word of Pre-Greek origin]Etymology: Uncertain; diff. proposals: to ἔρις, ὀρίνω (Solmsen KZ 42, 230 n. 2), to Skt. ríṣyati `be damaged' (Ehrlich Sprachgesch. 35, Prellwitz KZ 47, 187); to Skt. roṣati, ruṣyati `be unpleasant, be angry' with dissimilation υ-υ to ι-υ (Froehde BB 20, 187f.); cf. Kretschmer Glotta 9, 233. Etym. from Sanskrit are improbable - A connection with the mythical stallion Έρίων (Άρίων, ΌρίϜων; Bechtel Dial. 1, 349; s. also v. Wilamowitz Glaube 1, 399f.) requires further demonstration. - On the Erinyes Nilsson Gr. Rel. 1, 100f. - It is to be expected that the name is Pre-Greek. Cf. Herter, Lexis 3(1954)232 and Arena, Helikon 6 (1966)144f. Neumann, Sprache 32 (1986) 43-51 proposes *eri-snh₁-u- `who provokes struggle', from *sneh₁- as in νεῦρον. This would give, however, *eri-san-u- \> *eri-(h)anu-; this could be avoided by assuming that the laryngeal was lost in the compound. But does `provoke struggles' fit? Heubeck, Glotta 64 (1986), who accepts Neumann, answers no; (in fact he says that such a meaning "zwar nicht restlos geschwunden, aber doch... weitgehend zurückgedrängt worden ist", p. 164. The Erinyes have nothing to do with ἔρις, and the proposal cannot be correct; their primary function is to punish. So there is no good IE etymology and the word will be Pre-Greek. (The ending -ῡς would have to be from -uH-s, i.e. -u-h₂- (there is no suffix -uH-_), but Motionsfem. of this type in Greek are not known). I think that the ending is Pre-Greek. Also the variation ν\/νν may represent a palatal (phoneme) ny (cf. ly in Α᾽χιλ(λ)εύς; for the phenomenon see Beekes, Pre-Greek B 1).Page in Frisk: 1,559
Greek-English etymological dictionary (Ελληνικά-Αγγλικά ετυμολογική λεξικό). Robert S.P.. 2010.