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VIOLA from the Greek ION?
by Andy ;—) (guest)
6/26/2006, 6:43 AM
Wikipedia (German http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viola_%28Vorname%29)
says, that the feminine name VIOLA is a "Latin deminutive of the Greek íon, originally víon, after Ion, the founder of Athens."
Can anybody confirm this?
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- morfydd   +12
6/26/2006, 12:03 PM
I'd have thought that anyone bearing that name (such as the heroine in Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" would be named after the flower.
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- Andy ;—) (guest)   +11
6/26/2006, 12:19 PM
This is true. - But the question is: where did the flower get its name from?
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- Miranda (Randee15)   +10
6/26/2006, 12:31 PM
From what I can tell, the flower was named from Latin viola "violet".Sometimes a word ultimately just means "a sound we use to refer to a specific thing".
Miranda
Image hosting by PhotobucketProud adopter of 15 punctuation marks; see my profile for their names.
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- Andy ;—) (guest)   +9
6/26/2006, 12:58 PM
Where are you Greek-Freaks out there?True. But I was trying to get beyond the Latin vocabulary word "viola". Is it of Greek origin? Or maybe pre-Greek? - Maybe our Greek-Freaks can help …
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- Pavlos
6/26/2006, 11:09 PM
Furthermore...The word "iodes," from "ion" (the flower violet) and "eidos" (type) is Greek for "violet-colored". The word "iodone" was constructed from this word. The contemporary Greek word for "ultraviolet" is "hyperiodes".
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- Pavlos the Greak Freak (Pavlos)   +7
6/26/2006, 11:03 PM
Indeed, "ion" is the ancient Greek word for violet, the flower :) The word is still in use in contemporary Greece.
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- Andy ;—) (guest)   +4
6/27/2006, 12:56 AM
ION, Athens, and the flowerNow my specific question is: Has the name of the legendary founder of Athens, ION, got anything to do with the name of the flower, or is this pure coincidence?
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- Pavlos   +3
6/27/2006, 1:18 AM
Ionians are not purple!Actually Ion (the flower) is spelled with an omicron, whereas Ion (the name) with an omega.Turks and some Arabs refer to Greeks as "Yunani", i.e., *Ionians* not*. This has no reference to "purple people" or violets, I would hope.

This message was edited 6/27/2006, 1:19 AM

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- Andy ;—) (guest)   +2
6/27/2006, 1:51 AM
But they do grow in flower beds!True enough! But I just found this in my Greek dictionary:"ionia" (with an omega) for "flower bed of violets". So I don't think the omikron/omega thing is really all that crucial. But haven't been able to find out anything about the origin of the name Ion. I thought maybe your clever books might know …
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- Pavlos   +1
6/29/2006, 2:12 AM
I am really pretty stumped with the origin of Ion and the Ionians (I dont care too much about those bloody Corinthians and Ionians, being Doric myself). Here is a site which presents quite a few (nonconclusive) theories:http://www.indo-european.nl/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=leiden&morpho=0&basename=dataiegreek&first=71
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- Andy ;—) (guest)
6/30/2006, 3:52 AM
The link doesn't seem to work …… so maybe you can give me a short survey on the information?tiaAndy
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- Anneza   +1
6/26/2006, 11:28 PM
Pavlos, I know that in Latin (most) flowers are masculine in gender, and trees feminine - does the same apply to Greek? Or is the masculine name Ion a coincidence?
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- Pavlos
6/27/2006, 1:09 AM
Not so!There are flowers for all tastes and sexual preferences:
To Ion (neuter gender)
O Hyakinthos (masculine gender)
H Orchidea (feminine gender)
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