ἀθάρη <Egyptian?; Classical period>
👉 ἀθάρη f. [⏑--] – ‘a kind of gruel or porridge (usually of wheat)’ (Ar., Pl. 673; Crates Com. 11; Pherecr. 113.3 etc.); other variants: ἀθάρα (SB 4 7451.129: 3rd c. BCE; Gal. 11.142; Alciphr. 3.31.2 etc.), ἀθήρα (Hellanic. 192; Sophr. 141; SB 8 9841.4, 19: 3rd c. BCE; etc.) and ἀθέρα (Phot. α 471). Cf. athera in the meaning of pulmentum lenticulae ‘a dish of lentils’ (Joan. Cass., Coll. 15.10=1010A).
⚠ Hsch. α 1581: ἀθήρα· βρῶμα διὰ πυρῶν καὶ γάλακτος ἡψημένον παρ' Αἰγυπτίοις – “athēra: a dish made of boiled wheat and milk in Egypt”; Plin., NH 22.121: olyram arincam diximus vocari. hac decocta fit medicamentum quod Aegypti atheram vocant, infantibus utilissimum, sed et adultos inlinunt eo. – “Olyra (two-grained wheat) is, as I have said, also called arinca. With a decoction of it a medicine is made which the Egyptians call athera, very beneficial for babies, though adults too use it as a liniment.” (trans. W.H.S. Jones); Hieronym., Hebr. quaest. in Gen. 45.21=1051B: Porro θήρα venationem magis potest sonare, quam fruges; tametsi moris sit Aegyptiorum θήραν etiam far vocare, quod nunc corrupte atheran nuncupant – “Besides, thēra can mean hunting rather than produce of the land, even though it is the custom of the Egyptians to call grain thēra, which nowadays in lax fashion they call athera.” (trans. C.T.R. Hayward); cf. Joan. Cass., Coll. 15.10=1010A, who indicates that the Desert Fathers of Egypt used the name athera for a dish of lentils. Furthermore, note that the word occurs often in papyri from Egypt (SB 4 7451.129; 8 9841.4, 19; 16 12675.13; UPZ 94.20 etc.).
🅔 An Egyptian word? – cf. Egyptian ṯrj ‘a dish (a kind of bread?)’; moreover, cf. Egyptian ṯrt (written also as ṯry) ‘fine flour’, which presumably is a Semitic loanword: Akkadian siltu perh. ‘a kind of groats’, Biblical Hebrew sōleṯ ‘semolina, groats, fine flour’, Jewish Aramaic sûltā ‘fine flour’, sûleṯ ‘id.’. Cf. an unlikely connection with the Egyptian nṯr ‘god’, Coptic ⲛⲟⲩⲧⲉ (S, A, L, O), ⲛⲟⲩϯ (B, F, O), ⲛⲟⲩⲧⲓ (F, O) ‘id.’. Moreover, cf. some native etymologies: 1. Sanskrit math- and manth- ‘to stir or whirl round; churn; mix’ and Hsch. μ 1542: μοθούρας· τὰς λαβὰς τῶν κωπῶν; 2. Greek ἀθήρ, -έρος m. ‘awn’; 3. Latin ador, -oris ‘a kind of coarse grain; emmer wheat’. On the basis of the Attic form ἀθάρη, some scholars reconstruct *ἀθάρ₣ᾱ.
📖 Data: CAD: XV, 267; CDA: 323; DCH: VI, 166f.; DJBA: 793; DJPA: 370; DLE: II, 231f.; GHÄD: 1031f.; HALOT: 758f.; WÄS: V, 386 and 388. Ref.: Daniel 1962: 19f.; Fournet 1989: 72f.; Matijašić 2011: 144-146; Perpillou-Thomas 1992; Torallas Tovar 2004: 178f.; cf. Bernal 2006: 246-248; Boisacq 1916: 17; EDG: 28; Hoch 1994: 369f.