Cognate Set 4897 – Meaning: fight

IE-CoR reference form:
μάχομαι / máchomai
IE-CoR reference language:
Greek: Ancient
Ideophonic:
no
Parallel derivation:
no
Proposed as cognate to:
*magʰ- [Proto-Indo-European] scale: 0
Justification:
No consensus etymology outside of Greek (cf. Chantraine 1968–1980:673-674, Beekes 2010:916-917); Malzahn & Peters 2010 propose a connection to Tocharian B mäk- 'run', but the meanings are divergent (cf. 'run' in cognate set 7203). LIV² 422 assigns to *magʰ- 'to be able'.
Found in clades:
Hellenic
Revised by:
Matthew Scarborough
Found in 1 clade by 2 lexemes.
Language Lexeme Native script Phonetic Phonemic Notes
6   Greek: Ancient máchomai μάχομαι mákʰo̞mai̯ mákʰo̞mai̯ Inf. μάχεσθαι. (with, +dat.)
7   Greek: New Testament máchomai μάχομαι ˈmakʰome̞ ˈmakʰome̞
References
  • Beekes, Robert: 916-917
    S.v. μάχομαι 'to fight, combat'. The root μαχ- is isolated in Greek and there has not yet been a convincing etymology proposed. One clever proposal compares Iranian borrowings in Greek *ha-mazan- > Ἀμαζών 'Amazon', and glosses from Hesychius ἁμαζακάραν· πολεμεῖν. Πέρσαι 'to fight, Persian', ἁμαζανίδες· αἱ μηλέαι (a type of fruit), but this is very uncertain.
  • Chantraine, Pierre: 673-674
    S.v. AGk. μάχομαι 'combattre, lutter'. The etymology has not yet been established.
  • Malzahn, Melanie and Peters, Martin
  • Rix, Helmut: 422
    Cf. s.v. *magʰ- 'können, imstande sein' (IEW 695, 697).