102 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2»'» S. VI. 136., Aug. 7. '58. 



colour, had obtained the name ijMKTpov, as applied 

 to the metal long before called by that name ! 

 The same writer maintains that amber was the 

 original substance so called, but his only reason is 

 easily disposed of, as I trust to show in the sequel. 

 The passages in Homer and Hesiod mentioning 

 ^XeKTpou leave the question undecided as to whe- 

 ther they mean the metal or the fossil resin ; 

 whilst the very nature of the description would 

 seem to enforce the belief that these poets describe 

 the precious metal compounded of gold and silver, 

 or, at least, of gold and brass ; for never did am- 

 ber shine so gorgeously as either of those alloys in 

 their well-burnished brightness. 



As to the etymology of the word, we can trace 

 it with some probability to the Sanscrit rak-ta, 

 '■^ red, coloured red;" rak-ta itself being derived 

 I'rom 7-aj, " to shine," " to be coloured ; " raj being 

 kindred with raj, " to shine," "to be resplendent," 

 and the radical element of ?; — k^k — t . . ., that is, 

 the second syllable, may be connected with raj. 

 (See Pott, Etijm. Forschung. i. 237.) Again, the 

 terminations Tup, Lat. tor, trum, tru, are the same 

 agent-affixes as the Sanscrit tri (= tar or tar) ; 

 Greek 'rpo{u), Lat. t)-u(m) ; and it is evident that 

 the same have been perpetuated in the German, 

 the English, and other cognate idioms ; for in- 

 stance, Ge — lach — tcr, laugh — ter, and innumer- 

 able other words with that termination or agent- 

 affix. (See Bopp, Vergleich. Gram. 1147.) The 

 word may therefore mean that which is " resplen- 

 dent," "shining," "bright," if this be the correct 

 etymology. The change of the Sanscrit r iolm 

 Greek and Latin is an established fact; and a 

 few other instances will suffice. Sansc. gru, Gr. 

 KA.u-(a)), Sansc. svirya, Gr. r/Aio-(j), Sansc. sr'i, Lat. 

 sal-i(re), Sansc. urn'a, Lat. lana. The Russian 

 for amber is Jantar {Yantai-), seeming to uphold 

 this derivation : for the Sclavonic is Gantar (Lith. 

 Gintaran') — the root gan being apparently the 

 Sclavonic ogii, ogen, aghni, " fire " (Latin ignis), 

 and decidedly the Sanscrit agni, "fire — the god 

 of fire — one of the most ancient and most sacred 

 objects of Hindu worship ;" — auA agni, in San- 

 scrit, also means " gold ! " I know not whether 

 uiy conjecture be right, but it seems to me to 

 bear out the argument, as an analogous formation 

 with HA.e;cTwp of the Greek — thus agni-tar, — ogn- 

 tar, — gan-tar, — jan-tar. 



There seems to be no word in Sanscrit which 

 can be taken for a certainty to mean " amber " or 

 " electrum," the words so rendered by Mr. M. 

 ^Villiams being compound words, which are ren- 

 dered by Professor AVilson as " a gem, apparently 

 amber," or " a sort of gem apparently amber." 



In the Allgem. Encyclopccdie of Ersch and Gru- 

 ber {in voce "Bernstein"), it is suggested that the 

 word i]KiKTpou was borrowed from the Phoenicians 

 — because, according to the writer, the word 

 Eleck means in Arabic resin, which the heat of 



the sun causes to exude from trees ; and we are 

 reminded of the Heliades who were changed into 

 poplars, and whose tears were transformed into 

 grains of amber. It is to this fable — so " ancient" 



— that Buttmann appeals for his fancy that amber 

 was the original ¥i\eKTpov. In the first place, who 

 can define the adequate antiquity of this incident 

 of the fable ? And, secondly, why should not the 

 grains, or tear-drops, have been originally merely 

 compared to the brightness of the metal ^XeKrpov, 

 and only by Hyginus and Ovid matei'ialised into 

 the substance so naturally in accordance with the 

 whole poetic conception ? — 



" Inde fluunt lachrj'mse : stillataque sole rigescunt 

 De ramis electra novis : quae lucidus amnis 

 Excipit et nm-ibus mittit gestanda Latinis." 



There are, however, serious objections to the 

 etymology suggested by Ersch and Gruber, ap- 

 parently countenanced by this poetic conception. 

 The word eleck I have been unable to find in any 

 Arabic Lexicon — although I find in Meninski's 

 Lexicon what he articulates as alcek, with a variety 

 of meanings, as usual ; amongst the rest, not " re- 

 sin " or " gum," but merely " quod adbseret, uti 

 manui — sic tenacius lutum," which may be trans- 

 lated into London-mud. It seems to be merely a 

 fanciful articulation of the Persian lac, lak, and 

 the Sanscrit laksha — words which have become 

 common with us in the name of the well-known 

 gum-lac or sfiellac — the same being the product 

 of the insect Coccus lacca ; and it is said to be 

 so named from Laksha (Sanscrit), the number 

 100,000, with reference to the number of insects 

 in a nest. If fiXficrpou be Semitic in its root, per- 

 haps we may refer it to the Arabic elk, or alk, " to 

 shine," " to be resplendent," or " shining," " re- 

 splendent : " for the meaning is thus variously 

 given ; but I may express a doubt as to this ety-, 

 mology of the Greek word, in spite of the apposite 

 signification. On the other hand, it is worthy of 

 notice that lak, laksha, lakh, are Hindustani words 

 derived from the Sanscrit, signifying gum-lac : 

 the gum formed by the Coccus lacca and sealing- 

 wax ; whilst lakha is " lac, a red die." (Shakesp. 

 Diet.) Of'course those who incline to this ety- 

 mology may refer to dx-((pas — which is certainly 

 the Sanscrit ibha, " elephant," with the Semitic 

 article al, el. I may observe that all the wares 

 enumerated in 1 Kings, x. 22., are names of San- 

 scrit origin. " For the king had at sea a navy 

 of Tharshish with the navy of Hiram : once in 

 three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing 

 gold, and silver, ivoi'y and apes and peacocks." 

 Thus, apes, in the Hebrew koph, Sansc. kapi, 

 Greek ktji/^oj and (cfj/Soy ; — peacocks, inJiim, Sansc. 

 cikhi, Greek raws — but this is denied by Gesenius 



— although the Malabar name is togei, evidently 

 derived like the Greek. The Hebrew schcnhab- 

 him, "ivory," is the Sanscrit ibha, meaning "ele- 

 phant" — the original of the Lalia chur. But 



