Etymologicum Genuinum, the Ninth-Century Etymological Lexicon

The Etymologicum Genuinum (Ἐτυμολογικὸν τὸ Γενικόν) is the oldest of the great Byzantine etymological lexica, compiled at Constantinople in the mid- to late ninth century. François Lasserre and Nikolaos Livadaras began the modern synoptic edition at Rome (1976), printing the alpha stretch (α–ἁμωσγέπως) beside the Symeonis and the Magnum.

The anonymous compiler drew on Herodian, Choeroboscus, Methodius, Orion, Oros, and Theognostus, and was possibly close to Photius's circle. Two tenth-century abridgements survive (Vaticanus gr. 1818; Laurentianus S. Marci 304, copied in 994). Richard Reitzenstein coined the modern title Genuinum in 1897.

Later compilers of the Gudianum, the Symeonis, and the Magnum drew on it. What stands here is the lexicon itself — the etymologies and the earliest surviving redaction of that family.