Talk:ἄμι

@Vorziblix, is there an actual Egyptian etymon or is this a shot in the philological dark? —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 05:58, 4 January 2020 (UTC)

@Metaknowledge: Brugsch back in 1891 proposed a derivation from mjmj, but this was quickly disproven when Gardiner showed that that word referred to a kind of cereal — in any case, the phonological match was already problematic. Hemmerdinger 1968, “Noms Communs Grecs d'Origine Egyptienne”, makes a new attempt and gives it as coming from Egyptian ꜥmꜣw (“a medicinal plant of uncertain kind”). Pierce 1971, “Egyptian Loan-words in Ancient Greek”, is critical of Hemmerdinger and notes in this particular case that the reading of ꜥmꜣw is very uncertain: others have read the word as variously ꜥmꜣ, mꜣ, ꜥmꜣmw, and the Wörterbuch gives references to other similar words for medicinal plants ꜥꜥm, ꜥmꜥꜥ, ꜥꜥꜣm that may or may not also represent the same word. Since both the meaning and reading of ꜥmꜣw are uncertain, Pierce is loath to accept it as an etymon. Still, I suppose it remains possible, if far from proven. — Vorziblix (talk · contribs) 15:44, 4 January 2020 (UTC)