William Hansen, in Classical Mythology (Oxford Univ. Press, 2004, recounts the myth that Deucalion and Pyrrha peopled the earth by casting stones over their shoulder, and thereby asserts that the word “people” comes from Greek laas, for pebble, and laos, for people (p 73.) I have no Greek, nor am I a scholar, but would be very interested to hear better informed opinions.
The entry for people in this dictionary is the better informed opinion you are looking for. It’s safe to assume the idea you shared from Hansen is not credible as it is not referenced in this dictionary.
I did, of course, look here, but I confess to a fondness for the myths of people springing up from dragons teeth and rocks, or being fashioned from clay, as well as native American traditions of addressing rocks as “grandfather.” All those associations seem plausible, and this dictionary admits that it is “a word of unknown origin”…so…I was hoping someone might suggest other threads to pull…?
The principal sources that this dictionary depends on are probably the best place for you to look next!
I figured it might be interesting, at least, to ask the author about what he’d written. Briefly, he was presenting it as “folk etymology,” as suggested in the myth itself. Here’s his reply:
As for the “people” and “pebbles” correlation that I suggested, I did not mean to imply an actual, scientific etymology, only one that resembles the folk etymology in the myth. In the Greek myth, the Greek word for “people, folk” is “laos” and the word for “stones” is “laas.” The mythic narrative implies that people are called laos because they originated from laas. This is not a scientific etymology but rather a folk, or non-scientific, popular etymology, based on the superficial similarity of these two words. I try to capture this in English by rendering the corresponding words as “people” and “pebbles.” I don’t mean this as a serious etymology, only as one like the one in the Greek story.
Ah, makes sense! So he wasn’t claiming an etymological connection between ‘people’ and ‘pebbles’ in the first place.
I do personally think folk etymology is very important and undervalued. It seems to be a bit of a tent for a variety of language forming forces that work different than the standard family tree where words have clear lineage with other words.
yep…I didn’t read it carefully enough the first time…probably because I liked the associations so much!
I do like the attempt from Hansen to preserve some of the syntactic elements of the original and not just the semantic. One of the impossible tasks that a translator faces.
I know a material amount of syntax was lost when translating the Bible out of Hebrew. For example the phrase in Genesis 1:2 that is translated to “without form, and void” rhymes in the original language. Just as an example of something that was lost in translation.
Kiko, I appreciate your connection between the Greek people and pebble. I am reminded of a verse of scripture: “And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.” (Matthew 3:9).
stones everywhere! And Adam, of the red dirt!