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| Goddess Britomartis |
Greek parthénos 'virgin,
unmarried girl' is an interesting word with no clear Indo-European
etymology, although the German Indo-Europeanist Gert Klingenschmitt1 has
proposed a derivation from *pr̥-sténos '(having) protunding breasts', a compound
of *pr̥- 'before' and *sténos 'breast' (Avestan fštāna-) < IE *psten(o)- parallel to Avestan ərəduua-fšnī- 'having firm breasts'.
Despite being accepted by some specialists2, to me this
proposal is phonetical and semantically implausible, so I regard this
word as a kinship
term with parallels in Old Prussian mārtin, mārtan 'bride', Lithuanian martì ‘bride, daughter-in-law’, Latvian mā̀rša 'brother's wife', Crimean
Gothic marzus ‘wedding’, apparently
a Wanderwort found in Eteocretan *marti-/*marpi- 'virgin/maiden' (cfr.
the Goddess Britomartis 'Sweet
Virgin/Maiden'), Etruscan marθ 'bride'
(in papac marθc svlisva 'the
wills of the grandfather and the bride')3, and ultimately related to
East Caucasian (Nakh-Daghestanian) *bHaddɮi (~ -ǝ-) 'young
(of animals)'4.
In my opinion, this is the likely source of Sanskrit pr̥̥thuka- 'calf, young of an animal', Armenian ortc 'young of cattle or deer' and Greek pórtis 'calf, young heifer', pórtaks 'calf'5, linked by Thomas Burrow6 to parthénos. The semantic shift from 'heifer' to 'virgin, unmarried girl' would be explained in the context of a pastoralist society like those of Kurgan people.
Also related within IE would be Germanic *farzá-, *farzḗn, *fársō(n) 'bull, ox' and Slavic *porsъ 'bull'. In turn, the Caucasian word has cognates in Proto-Altaic *bāla 'child, young' and PIE *pelH- 'foal' (Greek pôlos 'foal', Armenian ul 'kid, young of deer or gazelle', Albanian pelë 'mare')7.
______________________________________________________________In my opinion, this is the likely source of Sanskrit pr̥̥thuka- 'calf, young of an animal', Armenian ortc 'young of cattle or deer' and Greek pórtis 'calf, young heifer', pórtaks 'calf'5, linked by Thomas Burrow6 to parthénos. The semantic shift from 'heifer' to 'virgin, unmarried girl' would be explained in the context of a pastoralist society like those of Kurgan people.
Also related within IE would be Germanic *farzá-, *farzḗn, *fársō(n) 'bull, ox' and Slavic *porsъ 'bull'. In turn, the Caucasian word has cognates in Proto-Altaic *bāla 'child, young' and PIE *pelH- 'foal' (Greek pôlos 'foal', Armenian ul 'kid, young of deer or gazelle', Albanian pelë 'mare')7.
1 G. Klingenschmitt (1974): 'Grieschisch παρθένος', in Antiquititae Indogermanicae. Gedenkschrift für Hermann Güntert, pp. 273-278.
2 R.S.P. Beekes (2010): Etymological Dictionary of Greek, p. 1153. See also X. Delamarre (2008): Gauloises Ardasina, Titiluxsa, Uxesina, grec parthénos, avestique ərəduuafšnī-. Une dénomination indo-européenne de la jeune femme: 'celle qui ha les seins hauts'.
3 A. Morandi (1987): La tomba degli Scudi di Tarquinia [Contributo epigrafico per l'esegesi dei soggetti], in Mélanges d'École française de Rome. Antiquité, p. 104.
4 Diakonoff-Starostin link to this Hurrian pōra-(m)mi, Urartian porā 'slave'. See I. Diakonoff & S. Starostin (1986): Hurro-Urartian as an Eastern Caucasian Language, §2.
5 Also related are Old Church Slavonic za-prъtъkъ 'wind egg', Czech s-pratek 'premature calf' (Pokorný).
6 T. Burrow (1955): The Sanskrit Language, p. 71.
7 J. Mallory & D. Adams (2006): The Oxford Introduction to PIE and the PIE world, p. 192.
2 R.S.P. Beekes (2010): Etymological Dictionary of Greek, p. 1153. See also X. Delamarre (2008): Gauloises Ardasina, Titiluxsa, Uxesina, grec parthénos, avestique ərəduuafšnī-. Une dénomination indo-européenne de la jeune femme: 'celle qui ha les seins hauts'.
3 A. Morandi (1987): La tomba degli Scudi di Tarquinia [Contributo epigrafico per l'esegesi dei soggetti], in Mélanges d'École française de Rome. Antiquité, p. 104.
4 Diakonoff-Starostin link to this Hurrian pōra-(m)mi, Urartian porā 'slave'. See I. Diakonoff & S. Starostin (1986): Hurro-Urartian as an Eastern Caucasian Language, §2.
5 Also related are Old Church Slavonic za-prъtъkъ 'wind egg', Czech s-pratek 'premature calf' (Pokorný).
6 T. Burrow (1955): The Sanskrit Language, p. 71.
7 J. Mallory & D. Adams (2006): The Oxford Introduction to PIE and the PIE world, p. 192.
