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ArchivesMeaning of Thessaly?
Thessaly. Greek place name, yes. But is there any possible meaning that could be derived from its etymology? My searches haven't found anything.
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Hi !!!
Thessaly comes from Thessalia.
But Thessalia comes from Tessares + Ellás.
Tessares means "four" because Thessalia was devided into four districts.
Ellás (or Hellás) is well known because it was the ancient name of Greece. But it has a meaning too.
Goddess Ella (or hero Ellas) were the ancestors of Ellrnic people.
Other Etymology of Ellas is Sellas that derives from Selene+Ellas. Selene was the goddess of the moon so Ellas mean "where the moon is venerated" or "lunar land, barren land".
...
So Thessalia (and Thessaly) mean simply "four lands of Ellas people" while literaly "four lands where Selene is venerated" or "four barren lands")
Thessaly comes from Thessalia.
But Thessalia comes from Tessares + Ellás.
Tessares means "four" because Thessalia was devided into four districts.
Ellás (or Hellás) is well known because it was the ancient name of Greece. But it has a meaning too.
Goddess Ella (or hero Ellas) were the ancestors of Ellrnic people.
Other Etymology of Ellas is Sellas that derives from Selene+Ellas. Selene was the goddess of the moon so Ellas mean "where the moon is venerated" or "lunar land, barren land".
...
So Thessalia (and Thessaly) mean simply "four lands of Ellas people" while literaly "four lands where Selene is venerated" or "four barren lands")
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Thessaly was the main place of habitaton of the Pelasgi who were not of Greek extraction. This means they were not part of the Hellenic people. Pelasgians did not speak Greek,as per testimony by Herodotus.MOreover, Thessaly did not take its name after number 4,as according to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, there were 3 main districts in Thessaly after 3 Pelasgians. "The leaders of the colony were Achaeus, Phthius and Pelasgus, the sons of Larisa and Poseidon"[1.17.1]
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A Turkic origin is fanciful, as Turkic-speaking people didn't enter the area until Attila (and then only as raiders, not settlers). Pelasgian is a catch-all for any and all non-Greek, pre-Greek or proto-Greek people in the Aegean and Peloponnese. There are probably two Pre-Greek language strata - various aboriginal languages which influence toponyms such as Thessaly - and a later agricultural culture usually identified as Afro-Asiatic (related to Egyptian and Semitic), based on early scripts and agricultural terms.
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Hi Felie,
I really don't think Thessalia (Θεσσαλία) could be related to tessera (τέσσερα) and Hellas (Ἑλλάς) by any stretch of the imagination.
It fact its etymology is quite uncertain; one etymological link I find more plausible would be thessasthai (θέσσασθαι - http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dqe%2Fssasqai) meaning "to pray".
I really don't think Thessalia (Θεσσαλία) could be related to tessera (τέσσερα) and Hellas (Ἑλλάς) by any stretch of the imagination.
It fact its etymology is quite uncertain; one etymological link I find more plausible would be thessasthai (θέσσασθαι - http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dqe%2Fssasqai) meaning "to pray".
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Many place names in Europe survive from before the introduction of Indo-European culture. One pf the fist things people ask is "where are we?", "what river is that?" etc. Of course the answer is usually "Here" or "that's the river", but incoming people don't tend to change a place's name, they just add new locations by creating new settlements. Thessaly appears to be one of these. The various dialect variations point to a common Proto-Greek Kwettalos from which the dialect forms:
Θεττᾰλός (Thettalós) – Attic
Πετθᾰλός (Petthalós) – Thessalian
Φεττᾰλός (Phettalós) – Boeotian
arise normally, but like many other Greek words it can't be traced back to any other Proto-Greek roots or earlier Indo-European forms and is assumed to be a "Pre-Greek" word whose use continued after the arrival of the first Greek speakers in the region following the Aegean collapse (a collapse in culture and population preceding Indo-European expansion comparable to the fall of the Roman Empire in Britain).
Θεττᾰλός (Thettalós) – Attic
Πετθᾰλός (Petthalós) – Thessalian
Φεττᾰλός (Phettalós) – Boeotian
arise normally, but like many other Greek words it can't be traced back to any other Proto-Greek roots or earlier Indo-European forms and is assumed to be a "Pre-Greek" word whose use continued after the arrival of the first Greek speakers in the region following the Aegean collapse (a collapse in culture and population preceding Indo-European expansion comparable to the fall of the Roman Empire in Britain).
This message was edited 9/15/2017, 6:12 PM
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