Πελασγοί
εἰ γάρ κεν καὶ σμικρὸν ἐπὶ σμικρῷ καταθεῖο καὶ θαμὰ τοῦτ᾽ ἔρδοις, τάχα κεν μέγα καὶ τὸ γένοιτο → for if you add only a little to a little and do this often, soon that little will become great (Hesiod W&D, 361-362)
French (Bailly abrégé)
ῶν (οἱ) :
1 les Pélasges, anciens habitants de la Grèce, de l’Asie Mineure, de la Crète;
2 les Grecs en gén.
Étymologie: DELG l’étym. de Kretschmer est inacceptable.
Russian (Dvoretsky)
Πελασγοί: οἱ пеласги
1) древнейшие жители Эллады, обитавшие на Балканском п-ове, М. Азии и на островах Hom.;
2) Eur. = Ἓλληνες.
Frisk Etymological English
Grammatical information: m. pl.
Meaning: name of an (the) older Pre-Greek population of the Agaean area, sg. -ός Pelasgian (Il.).
Derivatives: Πελασγ-ικός Pelasgian (Il., Hdt.), -ιος id. (A., E.), f. -ίς (Hdt., A. R.), -ιάς (Call.); -ίη f. = Ἐλλάς (Hdt.); -ιῶται m. pl., -ιῶτις f. sg. inhabitants of the Πελασγιῶτις f. landscape in southern Thessalia (Hdt.). -- Πελαργικὸν τεῖχος n. name of the ground at the northerly river of the Acropolis in Athens (Hdt., Att.) with old transition of σγ (= zg) to ργ (Schwyzer 218)?
Origin: XX [etym. unknown]
Etymology: No etymology. Widely accepted was the hypothesis of Kretschmer (first Glotta 1, 16 f.) which explained Πελασγοί from *Πελαγσ-κοί as "inhabitant of flat land", from πέλαγος in orig. sense of plain. This semantically uncertain, formally contestable interpretation was also several times doubted; s. F. Lochner-Hüttenbach Die Pelasger (Arb. Inst. Sprachw. 6. Wien 1960) 143ff. with referee of also other proposals and extensive treatment of the whole problem (on Πελαργικόν ibd. 116 w. n. 74); cf. the dicussion by Kronassers, Sprache 7, 218ff.
