Etymograph

English

anopheles

Anopheles comes from mul-tax Anopheles ‘genus of mosquitoes’, from Ancient Greek ἀνωφελής ‘unprofitable, useless’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃bʰel-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₃bʰel-reconstructed
  2. Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*opʰelosreconstructed
  3. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEὄφελοςóphelos‘advantage, benefit, good’
  4. Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEἀνωφελήςanōphelḗs‘unprofitable, useless’
  5. mul-taxmodernAnopheles‘genus of mosquitoes’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1901anopheles

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₃bʰel-reconstructed
  2. Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*opʰelosreconstructed
  3. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEὄφελοςóphelos‘advantage, benefit, good’
  4. Ancient Greek, derivedc. 800–300 BCEἀνωφελήςanōphelḗs‘unprofitable, useless’
  5. mul-taxmodernAnopheles‘genus of mosquitoes’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1901anopheles

Earliest quotation: 1901, Herbert Watkins-Pitchford, Horse-sickness Investigations (Continued): “Analogy with the malaria-carrying mosquito points to the various…”

The story

Borrowed from taxonomic name Anopheles (‘genus of mosquitoes’), coined by the German entomologist Johann Wilhelm Meigen (1764–1845), from Ancient Greek ἀνωφελής (anōphelḗs, “unprofitable, useless; hurtful, prejudicial”), from ἀν- (an-) (a variant of ᾰ̓- (ă-, prefix forming terms having senses opposite to stems or terms to which it is attached)) + ὄφελος (óphelos, “advantage, benefit, good”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃bʰel-) + -ης (-ēs, suffix forming third-declension adjectives).

Every English word from Proto-Indo-European *h₃bʰel-

Today it means

noun A mosquito of the genus Anopheles, some insects of which transmit various parasites of the genus Plasmodium that are the cause of malaria.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *h₃bʰel- / anopheles

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