Towards the African Etymology of Greek ἔβενoς

Abstract

This paper seeks the ultimate origin of our European term for ebony. The line of a number of borrowed forms has long been well known down to Egyptian, but all the problems surrounding the source of this term itself have so far not been subject to a careful investigation. First, we try to locate the Coptic reflex of Eg. hbnj in order to verify its supposed vocalisation. Sec ondly, all the diverse approaches to resolving its puzzling origin are critically evaluated. Thirdly, we present abundant linguistic evidence for an entirely new derivation from the ancestral Common Afro-Asiatic root stock itself with unavoidable implications on the mid-Holoce past of this oldest neolithic macrofamily. * I am greatly indebted to Prof. Krzysztof Tomasz Witczak (Department of Classical Phi lology, University of Łódz) for his encouragment and support enabling me to have successfully applied for the ARR grant of his home university, in the frames of which this study has been completed, as well as for drawing my attention to a possible outlet for it in this issue of the jour nal “Eos”. He also supplied me with some more recent literature in classical philology on the Greek term.