Published : 2025-07-07

Terms for Pigsty in Ancient Greek

Abstract

The article discusses seven Greek terms for ‘pigsty’ recorded in ancient times (συφεός, συοβαύβαλος, χοιροκομεῖον, χοιροτροφεῖον, ὑοφορβεῖον, ὑών, καπρών). These lexemes were subjected to a morphological and etymological analysis with particular emphasis on the Homericism συφεός. Our research demonstrated that the oldest appellatives, which are usually complex formations, describe the pigsty as a place where pigs are fattened. Starting from the Hellenistic epoch, innovative terms for ‘pigsty’, derived from terms denoting the domesticated pig (κάπρος, σῦς, ὗς, χοῖρος) by means of the suffix -ών (e.g. καπρών, ὑών, afterwards συών, χοιρεών) gained importance. The transformation of a collective noun into a nomen loci was observed in one case (Gk. συβόσιον || συβώσιον ‘herd of pigs’ > ‘pigsty’).

Keywords:

agriculture, animal breeding, etymology, Greek vocabulary, word-formation



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Roczniki Humanistyczne · ISSN 0035-7707 | eISSN 2544-5200 | DOI: 10.18290/rh
© The Learned Society of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin & The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Faculty of Humanities

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