ἀδαμνεῖν <Phrygian?; Early Byzantine period>
👉 ἀδαμνεῖν – ‘to love’ (Hsch. α 999); cf. Ἀδάμνα ‘Attis’ (Hippol., Ref. 5.8.9 (cj.; mss.: Ἀδάμ); Naass. Carm. 2.7 = Hippol., Ref. 5.9.8 (cj.; mss.: Ἀδάμ); Hsch. α 999).
⚠ Hsch. α 999: ἀδαμνεῖν· τὸ φιλεῖν. καὶ Φρύγες τὸν φίλον ᾿Αδάμνα λέγουσιν – “adamein: to love. And Phrygians call the beloved (scil. of Cybele) Adamna”. Cf. a hymn to Attis preserved by Hippolytos (Naass. Carm. 2 = Hippol., Ref. 5.9.8): (...) σὲ (scil. Ἄττι) καλοῦσι μὲν Ἀσσύριοι τριπόθητον Ἄδωνιν, (...) Σαμόθρᾳκες Ἄδαμ<να> σεβάσμιον (...), καὶ οἱ Φρύγες ἄλλοτε μὲν Πάπαν (...). – “Syrians (lit. Assyrians) call you (scil. Attis) thrice-longed-for Adonis, (...) Samothracians (call you) venerable Adamna (...), and Phrygians (call you), sometimes, Papas (....)”; cf. Hippol., Ref. 5.8.9.
🅔 Perhaps a Phrygian word, but its etymology is unclear. The verb is probably related to the theonym Ἀδάμνα. Cf. some doubtful juxtapositions with Modern Greek (19th-century Cappadocian dialect) ἀδαμασίτζα ‘love’, Latin amō, -āre, adamō, -āre ‘to love’, or Greek δάμνημι ‘to tame, subdue’. Cf. also ἀδάμμα.
📖 Ref.: cf. Fauth 1967: 133f.; PhL: 414; Tomaschek 1975: 173 (= II, 43).