ἄδωνις <Semitic; Early Byzantine period>
👉 ἄδωνις m. – a Phoenician word with the meaning of δεσπότης ‘master, lord’ (Hsch. α 1229).
⚠ Hsch. α 1229: ἄδωνις· ἰχθὺς θαλάσσιος οὗ μνημονεύει Κλέαρχος. ἢ δεσπότης (cj.; in ed.: δεσπότας), ὑπὸ Φοινίκων. καὶ Βήλου (cj;, in ed.: βόλου) ὄνομα. (...) – “adōnis: a sea fish mentioned by Clearchus. Or lord, (called so) by Phoenicians, as well as a name of Baal. (...)”.
🅔 A Hellenized Phoenician word – Phoenician and Punic ʾdn ‘lord, master, etc.’ with the suffixal possessive pronoun -ī ‘my’; cf. Biblical Hebrew ʾāḏôn ‘lord, master’ and ʾāḏônāy / ʾāḏōnāy ‘my Lord!’; cf. αδων. The theonym Ἄδωνις m. ‘Adonis’ comes from the same Phoenician word with the pronoun -ī.
📖 Data: DCH: I, 119-122; DNWSI: 15-17; HALOT: 12f.; PhPD: 34f.