δύο
Word
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Etymon-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
English translation (word)
Transliteration (Etymon)
English translation (etymon)
Century
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Quotation
τοιοῦτον γὰρ ἡ δύη, γινομένη κατὰ μὲν Πλούταρχον ἀπὸ τοῦ δύο ἀριθμοῦ, ἐπεὶ δυάζει π<ω>ς τὴν στοιχειακὴν καθ’ ὑγείαν ἑνότητα τὸ κακοπαθὲς καὶ διαλύει τὴν ἕνωσιν διὰ τῆς φθορᾶς, ἄλλως δὲ κοινῶς παρὰ τὸ δύω ῥῆμα· ἐξ οὗ καὶ ἡ ὀδύνη, δύη τις οὖσα φύσει καὶ αὐτὴ κατὰ τὸ ἀπλεόναστον, εἰ καὶ ἄλλως ἐκ τοῦ δύω κατὰ πλεονασμὸν γίνεται δύνη καὶ ὀδύνη ἡ κατὰ βάθος δύνουσα. [Stallbaum prints δυάζει, πῶς τὴν στοιχειακήν…]
Translation (En)
Such a thing is duē "misery", which according to Plutarch comes from the number two (duo), since hardship breaks apart in a way the strong unit of good health and dissolves the unity because of destruction. Or, commonly, from the verb duō "to dive", from which also comes odunē "pain", which is by nature a suffering (duē) in itself, without any addition. Or, too, from duō by addition comes *dunē and odunē, the one diving to the bottom
Parallels
Iamblichus, Theologoumena arithmeticae p. 13 (ὠνομάσθαι δὲ αὐτὴν [that is, δυάδα] οἴονται παρ’ αὐτὴν τὴν τόλμησιν, ὅτι ἄρα ὑπέμεινε τὸν χωρισμὸν πρωτίστη, δύη τε <καὶ> ὑπομονὴ καὶ τλημοσύνη)
Comment
Derivational etymology, coming from an unknown text if the attribution to Plutarch is correct. The idea is that misery breaks the soul and the body, that is, divides it in two. The etymology is reversible : in Iamblichus, δύη is given as the etymon of δυάς "the number two", which implies that δύη itself is derived from δύω