К этимологии др.-гр. теонима Κρόνος: Заметки о морфологическом типе на -όνο-

Acta Linguistica Petropolitana. Труды института лингвистических исследований. 2022. Т. 18. № 1. С. 179–190.

Kulikov L.

The article discusses the etymology of the Greek theonym Κρόνος (Cronus), qualified by all dictionaries as etymologically unclear. I argue that this name can be considered as a member of the small class of nouns in ‑όνο‑ with agent‑instrumental semantics. Following an old proposal by H. D. Müller (later advocated by M. Janda),
I adopt the analysis of this name as a derivative of the verbal root *κερ‑ (cf. κείρω ‘cut’, Arm. kʻerem ‘scratch, rub’, Old Norse skera ‘cut’, etc.), thus explaining the name of the harvest god Cronus as ‘the one who cuts; castrator’, referring to one of his main functions as well as to the myth of castration of his father Uranus by Cronus. The class of nouns in ‑όνο‑ (/ f. ‑ονη) arguably includes such nouns as θρ‑όνο‑ς ‘seat, chair’ (analysable as a derivative of *θερ‑ < PIE *dʰer‑ ‘fix, hold’), κλ‑όνο‑ς ‘excitement, throng’, φθ‑όνο‑ς ‘malice, envy’ (PIE *dʰegʷʰ‑ ‘almost reach’), βελ‑όνη ‘needle’
(PIE *gʷel‑ ‘throw, pierce’); ἀκ‑όνη ‘whetstone’ (PIE *h₂eḱ‑ ‘sharp(en)’). Possible correspondences of this morphological type outside Greek may include the Celtic type in ‑ono/ā‑ (cf. Nechtan, Mātronā) and Indo‑Iranian formations in ‑āna‑ of the type yudhāna‑ ‘enemy’ (yudh ‘fight’) or budhāna‑ ‘sage, teacher’ (budh ‘awake; observe,
perceive’), formally coinciding with the middle participles made from root stems and, probably, partly absorbed by them.

Keywords: этимология, theonym, теоним, древнегреческая мифология, древнегреческий язык, Greek mythology, etymology, Vedic, Ancient Greek, Sanskrit, санскрит, Greek etymology, ведийский санскрит, агентивные существительные, Κρόνος, formations in ‑όνο‑, middle participle, root stem, agentive noun, Кронос, тип на ‑όνο‑, медиальное причастие, корневые основы

Publication based on the results of: The inner and outer dynamics of cultural processes in the Oriental societies and its traditional foundations: languages, history and religion (2022)