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Meaning and etymology of the name Tryphosa




Tryphosa Tryphosa


Tryphosa is a woman mentioned by Paul in his letter to the Roman church (16:12). He greets her together with Tryphaena, and from the similarity of their names some scholars derive that they may have been twins (Spiros Zodhiates' The Complete Word Study Dictionary New Testament).

Both names Tryphosa and Tryphaena come from the following group of words: The verb truphao (truphao), meaning to live luxuriously or in pleasure (as used in James 5:5). This verb is constructed from the noun truphe (truphe), meaning delicate living, self-indulgence. This noun occurs in Luke 7:25 and 2 Peter 2:13, and was in turn derived from the verb thrupto (truphto), which Zodhiates translates with the rather verbose "to break up or enfeeble by luxury which destroys the integrity of body and mind." Liddell and Scott (A Greek-English Lexicon) state that this word means (1) to break in pieces, break small, and (2) metaphorically in moral sense: enfeeble, especially by debauchery and luxury.

But this root is not all negative; the word truphema (truphema), for instance, means "the object in which one takes pride" (according to Liddel and Scot).

The names Tryphosa and Tryphaena are artificial constructions of our root. The -osa part of Thryphosa isn't used much in Greek. But its meaning may be demonstrated by words such as thoos (thoos), meaning quick or nimble, and the derived thoosa (thoosa), meaning speedy or swift. The name Thoosa belongs to Thoosa, a nymph and daughter of Phorcys and mother of Polyphemus.

The -aina part of Thryphena is much more common. It primarily conveys femininity and secondarily diminution. For instance, the word alektruaina (alektruaina) means hen, and is the female form of alektruon (alektruon), meaning rooster; and drakania (drakania) means she-dragon and is the female form of drakon (drakon), meaning (male) dragon.

The noun aputaina (aputaina) means small pail, and comes from the verb apuo (apuo), meaning to draw (water or some other liquid). And the noun phluktaina (phluktaina) means blister and comes from the verb phleo (phleo), meaning to teem with abundance, to abound.

The word theaina (theaina - hence the names Diana and Diane), meaning goddess, is a Homeric derivation of the usual word for goddes: thea (thea - hence the name Thea), which is the feminine form of theos (theos - hence the name Theo), meaning god.

The names Tryphosa and Tryphaena are difficult to literally translate. It seems likely that the parents of Tryphosa and Tryphaena were so endeared with their two identical little girls that they called them Precious Little Ones, and played with the same root to create two non-existing words for names, perhaps comparable to Minime and Minima, or Sparkee and Sparka.

Hebrew Biblical names of similar meaning are Adin, Adina, Adino, Adna, Adnah and Eden.






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