ἀλάβης <Egyptian; Hellenistic period>
ἀλάβης, -ητος f. – ‘a Nile fish’ (P.Mich.Zen. 72.5-6: 3rd c. BCE; P.Tebt. 3 701. a.41: 2nd c. BCE; Str. 17.2.4; etc.), ἀλλάβης, -ητος f. ‘id.’ (Ath. 7.88/312b). Cf. Latin alabeta, -ae f. ‘id.’ (Plin., NH 5.51).
⚠ Str. 17.2.4, Ath. 7.88/312b, and Plin., NH 5.51, enumerate ἀλ(λ)άβης among other kinds of Nile fish. Note also that this fish name is attested first in papyri from Egypt (see above).
👉 An Egyptian loanword – Coptic ⲗⲉⲓϥⲓ (B) ‘Nile carp (Labeo niloticus)’ and ⲗⲁⲃⲏⲥ (S) prob. ‘id.’; cf. Demotic lbs ‘a kind of fish’ and Arabic labīs ‘Nile carp (Labeo niloticus)’. The form ⲗⲁⲃⲏⲥ (written with the definite article ⲡ-: ⲡⲗⲁⲃⲏⲥ) is an equivalent of Greek ἀλάβης in a 6th-century Greek–Coptic glossary (Diosc. Aphrod., Gloss. 418f.); this seems to be an important hint at the etymology itself, as well as at the identification of ἀλάβης as ‘Nile carp’. The initial vowel ἀ- might be interpreted as a kind of a prothetic vowel before a liquid. It is less probable that Greek ἀλάβης is a source for Coptic ⲗⲁⲃⲏⲥ (and for Demotic lbs); the quite different Bohairic form and the usage of the Greek word speak against such a hypothesis. Cf. two Egyptian ghost words quoted in the history of research as a source for the Greek word: †repi and †lepi (the former can be found in older Egyptological publications, e.g., in Budge’s dictionary; the latter seems to be an incorrect transliteration of Coptic ⲗⲉⲓϥⲓ). Moreover, cf. a view that ἀλ(λ)άβης is a Pre-Greek word (compared to ἀλλοπίης m. ‘a fish’ and ἔλλοψ -οπος m./f. adj. as an epithet of fish or subst. ‘fish (in general); a sea-fish; a serpent’).
📖 Data: CD: 148; CDD: s.v. lbs; DG: 262; DMWA: 855; KH: 76. Ref.: Hemmerdinger 1970: 63; Thompson 1928: 23; Thompson 1947: 9; Torallas Tovar 2004: 179; cf. EDG: 71; Fournet 1989: 74; Furnée 1972: 145.