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[Facts] IOLANTHE and VIOLA
For IOLANTHE this site has:"Means 'violet flower', derived from Greek ιολη (iole) 'violet' combined with ανθος (anthos) 'flower'."Now I can't find "iole" for "violet" in my Greek dictionary. All I find is "ion" for the flower. Has anybody got a more detailed dictionary?
Now somewhere else I read that the L in VIOLA is not from the Greek word (ion), but is a Latin demitutive ending. Can anybody confirm this?By the way, the V of VIOLA was a so called digamma in Greek. This was the F (that looked somewhat like two gammas, I suppose), but at an early stage was not pronounced and later omitted completely. So I assume that the word for "violet" made its way to the Romans fairly soon.
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IOLANTHE and VIOLA  ·  Andy ;—)  ·  8/10/2006, 8:18 AM
Re: IOLANTHE and VIOLA  ·  Mar  ·  8/10/2006, 8:40 AM
Re: IOLANTHE and VIOLA  ·  Cass  ·  8/11/2006, 5:15 AM
This was very helpful. Thanks!  ·  Andy ;—)  ·  8/11/2006, 6:17 AM
Re: This was very helpful. Thanks!  ·  Cass  ·  8/11/2006, 6:28 AM
Re: This was very helpful. Thanks!  ·  Andy ;—)  ·  8/11/2006, 11:19 AM
Re: This was very helpful. Thanks!  ·  Cass  ·  8/11/2006, 12:34 PM
Good point!  ·  Andy ;—)  ·  8/11/2006, 2:32 PM
Re: Good point!  ·  Cass  ·  8/11/2006, 4:18 PM
Thanks! nt  ·  Andy ;—)  ·  8/10/2006, 9:16 AM