φαρμακός

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

φαρμακός • (pharmakós) m (genitive φαρμακοῦ); ? declension

1. one sacrificed or executed as an atonement or purification; scapegoat
2. (term of abuse) criminal, worthless fellow

The second vowel is either long or short, φαρμᾱκός in Hipponax Iambographus and Callimachus Epicus; φαρμᾰκός in Aristophanes (Equites); on the accent see Herodianus (Grammar 1.150); φαρμᾶκος in Harpocration (citying Didymus).

• “φαρμακός”, in Liddell & Scott (1940), A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “φαρμακός”, in Liddell & Scott (1889), An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• φαρμακός in Bailly, Anatole (1935), Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910), English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • rascal idem, page 672.
  • scape goat idem, page 737.