🔼The name Tryphosa: Summary
- Meaning
- Opulenta, Sparkie Two
- Etymology
- From the verb τρυφαω (truphao), to live spoiled rotten, or θρυπτω (thrupto), to break into little pieces.
🔼The name Tryphosa in the Bible
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 (says Spiros Zodhiates in his excellent The Complete Word Study Dictionary New Testament).
🔼Etymology of the name Tryphosa
The names Tryphosa and Tryphaena come from this group of Greek words:
τρωγω
The verb τρωγω (trogo) means to consume or wear holes into. This verb is thought to be related to τρωω (troo) or τρωσω (troso), to wound. From this verb τρωγω (trogo) also comes the noun τρωγλη (trogle), hole, from which comes the word troglodyte, or cave-man.
Noun τρωγαλια (trogalia) described the nuts and fruits that rodents (hole-dwellers) would nibble on, and which were served for dessert after banquets. Verb θρυπτω (thrupto) means to break into little pieces; noun τρυφη (truphe) means weakness or being spoiled rotten, and verb τρυφαω (truphao), means to live in weakening opulence, to be spoiled.
From a related verb, τιτρωσκω (titrosko), also meaning to wound, comes the familiar noun τραυμα (trauma), wound (hence our English word "trauma"). From another related verb, τριβω (tribo), to rub smooth, comes the noun τριβος (tribos), smoothness, as used to describe the "smoothness" of the highway for the Lord in the desert.
Verb τρυφαω (truphao) means to live a life of luxury and opulence, even to be softened and weakened by luxury and opulence. Noun τρυφημα (truphema) describes a luxurious item or some object in which one takes pride. This brings to mind the sad and boding words of Tacitus:
"Strength was corrupted by luxury, in contrast to ancient discipline and the precepts of our ancestors, with whom Rome stood better by virtue than by money" (Hist.2.69).
And: "Our style of dress was admired, and the toga was common. Gradually they slipped into the allurements of vices: the public lounge, the bath, the elegant banquet. And in their ignorance they called it culture, when it really was part of their enslavement" (Agricola.21.3). An additional pun, perhaps, comes from the Latin for "part of their enslavement": pars servitutis, which uses the same word servio, to be a slave, as servile supplicium, the term for crucifixion.
This verb τρυφαω (truphao) derives from the verb θρυπτω (thrupto), to break into little pieces, which is significant because the name Thomas, meaning Twin has to do with the verb τεμνω (temno), to cut or cleave. The parents of Tryphosa and Tryphaena clearly had an excellent sense of humor.
The names Tryphosa (Τρυφωσα, Truphosa) and Tryphaena (Τρυφαινα, Truphaina) are artificial constructions of our root verb: they're made-up non-existent words, like Opulenta and Opulentina. The -osa part of Tryphosa isn't used much in Greek. But its meaning may be demonstrated by words such as θοος (thoos), meaning quick or nimble, and the derived θοωσα (thoosa), meaning speedy or swift. The name Θοωσα belongs to Thoosa, a nymph and daughter of Phorcys and mother of Polyphemus.
The -aina part of Tryphaena is much more common. It primarily conveys femininity and secondarily diminution. For instance, the word αλεκτρυαινα (alektruaina) means hen, and is the female form of αλεκτρυων (alektruon), meaning rooster; and δρακαινα (drakania) means she-dragon and is the female form of δρακων (drakon), meaning (male) dragon. The noun απυταινα (aputaina) means small pail, and comes from the verb απυω (apuo), meaning to draw (water or some other liquid). And the noun φλυκταινα (phluktaina) means blister and comes from the verb φλεω (phleo), meaning to teem with abundance, to abound.
Our name Tryphaena certainly also reminds of the word θεαινα (theaina), meaning goddess (hence also the name Diana), which is a Homeric derivation of the more usual word θεα (thea), goddess (hence the name Thea), which is the feminine form of θεος (theos), god (hence the name Theo).
🔼Tryphosa meaning
The names Tryphosa and Tryphaena are difficult to translate literally. 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 Mini-Me & Mini-Mo, or Sparkee & Sparka or Opulenta & Opulentina or Precious Little One & Precious Little Two.