ἄκριστις <Phrygian; Early Byzantine period>
👉 ἄκριστις (attested only in acc. sg. -ιν) f. – a Phrygian gloss with the meaning of πέπτρια ‘female cook’ and ἀλετρίς ‘female miller (slave)’ (Hsch. α 2576); cf. ἀκρηστής m. ‘slave’ (Hsch. α 2560). Moreover, cf. three glosses: ἀκρέα· παῖς θήλεια. Μακεδόνες (Hsch. α 2550), ἀκραία· παῖς θήλεια ὑπὸ Μακεδόνων (ΕΜ 52.17), *ἄκροι· ἄκραι. ἢ δοῦλοι (Hsch. α 2611).
⚠ Hsch. α 2576: ἄκριστιν· πέπτριαν (cj.; ms.: κλέπτριαν). ἀλετρίδα. Φρύγες – “akristin (acc. sg.): female cook, female miller (slave). Phrygians”.
🅔 Probably a Phrygian word. Cf. some hypotheses: 1. a local variant of Greek *ἄχρηστις f. (with the basic meaning ‘useless’); 2. related to Lithuanian gìrnos ‘quern’, Old Norse kvern ‘id.’, Old Church Slavonic žrŭny ‘id.’, etc.; 3. a Pre-Greek word (on the basis of the suffix -στ-).
📖 Ref.: cf. Diakonoff – Neroznak 1985: 91; EDG: 56; PhL: 414f.