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[188] ἐγχεσιμώρους. The etymological connection of the second element in this word has always been matter of doubt. Compare with it “ἰόμωρος” Il.4. 242, “ὑλακόμωρος” Od.14. 29, and “σινάμωρος” Hdt.5. 92.Eustath. offers two suggestions, “οἱ περὶ ἔγχη μεμορημένοι, ὅ ἐστι κακοπαθοῦντες” (but which he would have better explained as meaning, ‘having their part and lot in the use of the spear’); and again, “ὡς ὤραν ἔχοντες τῶν ἐγχέων, πλεονασμῷ τοῦ μ”, which is of course impossible. Others referred the termination to “μωρός”, as if ‘raging wildly with the spear,’ or to “μῶλον”, with an interchange of “λ” and “ρ”, compare “μῶλον Ἄρηος” Il.2. 401.Of modern philologists, Döderl. assigns it to a root “μα”, seen in “μαι-μά-ω”, etc. and with the form he compares “θεωρός” from “θεάομαι”. Göbel, whom Ameis follows, connects it with root “μαρ” (compare “μαρμαίρω”), in the sense of ‘brilliant,’ ‘excelling,’ while Curtius, Gk. Etym. 296, refers it to root “μερ”, as in “μερμερίζω”, the sense being parallel to that of the derivatives of “φρήν”, e.g. “μελίφρων, δαΐφρων”. For the change from “ε” to “ω” we may compare “φώρ” from “φερ, δῶμα” from “δεμ”.

Homer's Odyssey. W. Walter Merry. James Riddell. D. B. Monro. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1886-1901.

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