Gk. μοιχός ‘adulterer’: Re-mixing a Piss-poor Etymology

This paper challenges the traditional etymology of Greek μοιχός as a τομός-type noun derived from PIE *h₃mei̯g̑ʰ- ‘to piss’ and proposes to trace back the word to PIE *mei̯k̑- ‘to mix’. I re-evaluate the Latin and Sanskrit evidence cited in favor of a derivation for μοιχός from *h₃mei̯g̑ʰ- and find it inconclusive for the salient details of the semantic development proposed in the earlier literature. Moreover, the lateness of both the Sanskrit and Latin evidence points towards parallel innovations of the meaning ‘to ejaculate’ from ‘to piss’. Instead, the insight that reflexes of *mei̯k̑- frequently denote extramarital intercourse across Indo-European languages and especially Greek, notably in Homeric uses of μίσγω and ἐμίγην in adulterous contexts, provides semantic support for deriving μοιχός from PIE *mei̯k̑-. I formalize the derivation through a rátha-type derivational chain (*mei̯k̑- → *moi̯k̑-éh₂ → *moi̯k̑-h₂-ó-s > μοιχός) and adduce evidence from the Balto-Slavic branch for the intermediate τομή-type abstract. This analysis circumvents the difficulties posed by a lack of incontrovertible Greek evidence for the reconstruction of word-initial Saussure-Hirt effect (*#HRo > *#Ro) in PIE, especially when the resonant has the feature [–nasal]. A full re-evaluation of the evidence is, however, left for future research.