ἀβραμίς <Egyptian?; Roman period>
👉 ἀβραμίς or ἄβραμις [-⏑⏑], -ιδος f. – ‘a kind of mullet (from the family Mugilidae)’ (Opp., Hal. 1.244; Ath. 7.88/312a-b; SB 18 13150.21-22: 2nd c. CE), also ἀβραβίς f. ‘id.’ (SB 18 13593.23: 3rd-4th c. CE); cf. an uncertain form ἀβ̣ρ̣(αμίδες) (BGU 16 2634.5: 1st c. BCE/1st c. CE). Early attested (1st c. CE) is the diminutive ἀβραμίδιον n. ‘a pickled mullet’ (Xenocr., De alim. 78).
⚠ According to Ath. 7.88/312a-b, the fish occurred in the Nile. As mentioned above, the name is also attested in two or three papyri from Egypt.
🅔 Perhaps an Egyptian loanword. It is unlikely that Greek ἀβραμίς comes from the Egyptian definite article pꜣ and the noun rm ‘fish’, Demotic rm, rym, lm ‘id.’, Coptic ⲣⲁⲙⲉ, ⲣⲁⲙⲏ, ⲣⲁⲁⲙⲉ (S), ⲣⲁⲙⲓ (B) ‘tilapia, esp. Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)’. Cf. the information that the fish names abrenon or abarenon ‘gray mullet’ were used in Egypt in the 16th century, but this is difficult to verify.
📖 Ref.: cf. Fournet 1989: 72; Thompson 1928: 24; Thompson 1947: 1; Torallas Tovar 2004: 178; Wiedemann 1883: 8.