On Ancient Greek φράσσω : Proto-Germanic *burg-ja- (PIE *bhr̥gh-i ̯ó/é- ‘enclose’), AGk φόρξ* : PGmc *burg- (PIE *bhr̥gh-s ‘enclosing’), and the Greek sea-god Φόρκῡς/Φόρκος

Originally, φράσσω ‘enclose, fence in, secure, fortify, block’ was a three-place verb meaning ‘to enclose, cover something with something’, as shown not only by the syntax and semantics of its Homeric and post-Homeric occurrences, but also by its lexical family within Ancient Greek, which includes the Hesychian glosses φαρκ-άζω* ‘conceal’ and φόρξ* ‘fence’. These considerations allow for a new analysis, supported by exact matches in Germanic languages and in Hittite, of φράσσω and φόρξ* as two inherited formations reflecting Proto-Indo-European *bhr̥gh-i ̯ó/é- ‘enclose’ and *bhr̥gh-s ‘enclosing’, respectively. The study further discusses the development of a Proto-Greek ‘neo-root’ *√phr̥k ‘enclose, fence in’, which was re-analyzed and extracted from these inherited terms and from which new words were derived, including the Hesychian gloss φύρκος ‘wall’ (whose problematic root vowel may be explained in various ways) and the name of the sea-god Φόρκῡς/Φόρκος, whose characterization was probably a reflex of the Ancient Greek (and apparently already Indo-European) mythological motif of the ‘serpent-like world-enclosing water-deity’.