Expert: Maria - 7/3/2007

Question
Dear Maria,

What is the Ancient Greek word for “butterfly”, please? Is it the same as “moth”?

All the best,

Simon

PS Re “il cacciavite” (screwdriver), cacciare = expel/chase/hunt, so why is used in “cacciavite” “expel-screw” sounds a bit strange. Do “screw” and “screwdriver” exist in Latin and Ancient Greek, please?

Answer
Dear Simon,

the Ancient Greek word for “butterfly” is “psuché/psyché”(ψυχή, 1st.declension)  which is used in the meaning of ‘butterfly’/ ‘moth’  by Aristotle and Theophrastus, though its usual meanings are :breath, spirit, life, soul, departed spirit, ghost, living being, person.

Best regards,
Maria
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P.S. Actually the Italian verb CACCIARE means “to thrust”/  “to drive (in)”/ “ to ram” (in Italian, “introdurre’, ‘ficcare’, ‘spingere con forza’) as well as “to expel”/”to chase”/”to hunt”.
Hence CACCIAVITE since this tool is used for driving in a screw.

As for “screw” in Latin,  it is “cochlea” as we read in Vitruvius which tells of  “cochlea” as “a screw of a press”, while in Ancient Greek it is “kochlos”/ “kochlias”.

Both Latin and Greek use the same  term (usually meaning “snail” /”anything twisted spirally”)  probably because  the snail has often  a spiral shell and then suggests the concept of screwing.

Finally “screwdriver” does not exist in Latin nor in ancient Greek, probably because both the Romans and the Greeks used a verb (‘propello’, ‘impello’ in Latin; ‘strépho’ in Greek)  plus  the equivalent of ‘screw’.
I know in fact that in modern Greek “screwdriver” is “κοχλιοστρόφιο” composed by “kochlos”/ “kochlias” plus the verb “strépho” meaning “to turn about “, “to turn around”.
In ancient Greek however such a term does not exist at all.

In Latin “butterfly”/ “moth” is “papilio”(3rd.declension).