Ptolemy (name): Difference between revisions

'''Ptolemy''' is the English form of the [[Ancient Greek]] name Πτολεμαῖος (''Ptolemaios''), a derivative of πτόλεμος, an Epic form of πόλεμος 'war'.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dpo%2Flemos πόλεμος], Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus</ref><ref>The change from ''polemos'' to ''ptolemos'' is an example of a type of linguistic compounding called [[terpsimbrotos]]. The ''pt-'' in ''ptolemos'' (vs. earlier ''polemos'') "war" is thought to arise from a re-analysis of the compound word ''*phere-t-polemos'', metathesised to ''phere-ptolemos''. '''George Dunkel''', "Two old problems in Greek: πτόλεμος and τερψίμβροτος", ''Glotta'' '''70''':3/4:197-225 (1992) {{jstorJSTOR|40266932}}.</ref> A nephew of [[Antigonus I Monophthalmus]] was called ''Polemaeus'',<ref>Who's Who in the Age of Alexander the Great [https://books.google.com/books?id=JJ4K1wFZkrsC&pg=PA57&dq=Polemaeus&sig=pKlfRfbLZ3pD1N0RijnvK20miJ8] by Waldemar Heckel</ref> the normal form of the adjective. ''Ptolemaios'' is first attested in [[Homer]]'s [[Iliad]] and is the name of an [[Achaeans (Homer)|Achaean]] warrior, son of Piraeus, father of Eurymedon.<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hom.%20Il.%204.228&lang=original Homer, ''Iliad'', 4.228], on Perseus</ref>