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Labyrinth is a word of pre-Greek origin whose derivation and meaning are uncertain. Maximillian Mayer suggested as early as 1892 [11] that labyrinthos might derive from labrys, a Lydian word for "double-bladed axe". [12]
Plutarch relates that the word labrys was a Lydian word for 'axe': Λυδοὶ γὰρ ‘λάβρυν’ τὸν πέλεκυν ὀνομάζουσι. [a] [3] ("For Lydians name the double-edged axe 'Labrys ' "). Many scholars including Arthur Evans assert that the word labyrinth is derived from labrys and thus implies 'house of the double axe ...
The etymology of the word gnossienne is contentious, but the word existed in French literature before Satie's usage, and is in the 1865 Larousse Dictionary, referring to the ritual labyrinth dance created by Theseus to celebrate his victory over the Minotaur, first described in the "Hymn to Delos" by Callimachus.
As it turns out, there probably was an association of the word labyrinth, whatever its etymology, with ancient Crete. The sign of the double axe was used throughout the Mycenaean world as an apotropaic mark: its presence on an object would prevent it from being "killed". Axes were scratched on many of the stones of the palace.
Coins minted at Knossos from the fifth century showed labyrinth patterns encircling a goddess's head crowned with a wreath of grain, [29] a bull's head, or a star. Kerényi argued that the star in the Labyrinth was in fact Asterios, making the Minotaur a "luminous" deity in Crete, associated with a goddess known as the Mistress of the Labyrinth ...
The word is used to refer both to branching tour puzzles through which the solver must find a route, and to simpler non-branching ("unicursal") patterns that lead unambiguously through a convoluted layout to a goal. The term "labyrinth" is generally synonymous with "maze", but can also connote specifically a unicursal pattern. [1]
The following is an alphabetical list of Greek and Latin roots, stems, and prefixes commonly used in the English language from A to G. See also the lists from H to O and from P to Z.
Of the few words of secure Anatolian origin, most are cultural items or commodities which are likely the result of commercial exchange, not of a substratum. [14] Some of the relevant vocabulary can also be explained as linguistic exchange between Greek and Anatolian languages across the Aegean Sea without necessarily originating from a change ...