βάτραχος

• βάθρακος (báthrakos) — Ionic
• βότραχος (bótrakhos) — Ionic
• βρόταχος (brótakhos) — Ionic

Seemingly imitative of croaking, but this imitation has probably taken place not in Greek, but that Greek has borrowed from Pre-Greek or Semitic; compare Hebrew צְפַרְדֵּעַ (ṣəp̄ardḗaʿ), Arabic ضَفْدَع (ḍafdaʕ), considering that in the dialect of Zakynthos the frog is matching the Semitic with σπορδακάς (spordakás) – unless of course one must find that Semitic and Greek have borrowed from an unknown third.

Concerning the wide range of dialectal variation, Beekes explains that much may be due to folk etymology or taboo, combined with other phonetic alterations such as vowel displacement and even prenasalization, which indicate substrate origin: “A priori, a local (i.e. Pre-Greek) form is to be expected for all of these forms; the variation α/ο points to this.” The suffix *-χ- (*-kh-) is also found in names of other animals.

An older hypothesis (cf. Pokorny 1959) links Proto-West Germanic *krodu and Latin bruscus (“frog or toad”), all from a hypothetical Proto-Indo-European *gʷredʰ- (“frog, toad”), supposing metathesis (cf. Ionic βρόταχος (brótakhos)) and an original *dʰ whence perhaps the /tʰ/ of the Ionic variant βάθρακος (báthrakos), but this is phonetically very difficult. Moreover, as Beekes explains, the form with /t/ is original, whereas Ionic frequently displaces aspiration in this way.

βᾰ́τρᾰχος • (bátrakhos) m (genitive βᾰτρᾰ́χου); second declension

1. frog
   • Aristophanes, Frogs, 207.

     βατράχων κύκνων θαυμαστά.

     batrákhōn kúknōn thaumastá.

     Most amazing [songs] by the swanlike frogs.

2. anglerfish (Lophius piscatorius)

• βατράχιον (batrákhion)
• βατραχομυομαχία (batrakhomuomakhía)

• Greek: βάτραχος (vátrachos)
• Translingual: Batrachus, Batrachia
• → English: batrachotoxin

• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “βάτραχος”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 206–207
• Brown, John Pairman (1995) Israel and Hellas (Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft; 231), volume I, Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, page 336
• Brown, John Pairman (2000) Israel and Hellas (Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft; 276), volume II, Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, page 60

• “βάτραχος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “βάτραχος”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• βάτραχος in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• βάτραχος in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (2006–2024)
• G944 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited, page 346

• (diminutive): βατράχι (vatráchi)

From Ancient Greek βάτραχος (bátrakhos, “frog”).

βάτραχος • (vátrachos) m (plural βάτραχοι)

1. frog

• βατράχι n (vatráchi, “froglet”)
• βατραχάκι n (vatracháki, “frog”)
• βατραχάνθρωπος m (vatrachánthropos, “frogman”)
• βατραχοπέδιλο n (vatrachopédilo, “flipper”)
• βατραχοφάγος (vatrachofágos, “frog eating”, adjective)

• βάτραχος on the Greek Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^el