Ἀμαζών

The Greeks claimed that the word derives from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + μαζός (mazós, “breast”), in reference to the belief that Amazons cut off their right breast so that it might not hinder their ability to fire a bow or throw a spear. However, this is almost certainly a folk etymology; in art, Amazons are always shown with two intact breasts. The word is likely of foreign origin, perhaps initially an Ionic borrowing of the Old Persian word *hamazan- (“warrior”), since the Amazon women were known warriors, and would also explain the lack of initial aspirated *h- which might otherwise be expected, as Ionic lost aspiration at an early stage. It could also be native Greek, such as from a Proto-Indo-European *n̥-mn̥gʷ-yō (“manless one”), from Proto-Indo-European *mongʷyos (“man”) (compare Proto-Slavic *mǫžь), an explanation deemed unlikely by Hjalmar Frisk. Numerous other etymologies have been proposed, generally tracing the word back to Iranian, Greek or (West/East) Caucasian languages.

Ᾰ̓μᾰζών • (Ămăzṓn) f (genitive Ᾰ̓μᾰζόνος); third declension

1. (chiefly in the plural) Amazons, a mythical nation of female warriors from western Scythia.

• “Ἀμαζών”, in Liddell & Scott (1940), A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “Ἀμαζών”, in Liddell & Scott (1889), An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Ἀμαζών in Bailly, Anatole (1935), Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Ἀμαζών in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (2006–2026)
• “Ἀμαζών”, in Slater, William J. (1969), Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910), English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • amazon idem, page 26.