Etymologicum genuinum is a grammatical encyclopedia edited at Constantinople in the ninth century. The work, which is alphabetical to the third letter, borrows from Choiroboskos, Herodian, Methodius, Orion, Oros and Theognostos. Photius, patriarch of Constantinople took up the Etymologicum, which had been started by an unknown grammarian. In this and the recension called Etymologicum parvum that followed it Photius became the founder of the Greek etymological lexical works that were compiled in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, such as the etymologies known under the titles Etymologicum magnum and Etymologicum Symeonis; their manuscript sources are sometimes more complete.Its modern name was given it by its editor in the nineteenth century, Richard Reitzenstein. No existing manuscript of the work is complete. Most of the Etymologicum Genuinum remains unpublished, and some of the only published material is of the nineteenth century.
   These etymologies are useful for the quotations they preserve of literary works otherwise lost.

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