ἀγγοπήνια <Iranian; Early Byzantine period>
👉 ἀγγοπήνια (pl.) n. – a noun with the meaning of τὰ τῶν μελισσῶν κηρία, i.e. ‘honeycomb(s)’ (Cyrill. α 21, with a conjecture of ἀγγοπίνια to ἀγγοπήνια; Hsch. α 397, with a conjecture of αγοπηνας to ἀγγοπήνια; Suda α 298); note that Greek κηρίον n. ‘honeycomb’ occurs mostly in the plural (occasionally, τὰ κηρία also means ‘honey’).
🅔 A Middle Iranian loanword – Middle Persian angubēn ‘honey’, Manichaean Parthian angubēn ‘id.’, Sogdian angubēn ‘id.’, Modern Persian angabīn / angubīn ‘id.’, Pashto gabina / gabinə ‘id.’, Bangash Pashto agbēnə ‘id.’, Wanetsi angīn ‘id.’ etc. Greek -πην- goes back probably to early Middle Persian *-pēn (cf. Avestan *paēna- ‘honey’ attested in the Young Avestan adjective paēnaēna- ‘consisting of honey’; Ormuri pīn ‘honey’). The foreign word was adopted as a neuter noun with the suffix -ιον. Formerly, ἀγγοπήνια was treated as a Greek compound consisting of ἄγγος n. ‘a vessel (esp. for liquids)’ and πήνη f. ‘thread, woof’; cf. Suda α 298: ἀγγοπήνια: (...) τουτέστιν ἀγγεῖα ὑφαντά (...) – “angopēnia: (...) these are woven vessels (...)”.
📖 Data: AiW: 817; CPD: 10; CPED: 114; DMMPP: 48; NEVP: 27; SogdD: 42. Ref.: Brust 2008: 37-39; DELG: 8f.; EDG: 10.