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== Etymology == Much like all other aspects of the "Pelasgians", their ethnonym (''Pelasgoi'') is of extremely uncertain [[provenance]] and [[etymology]]. Michael Sakellariou collects fifteen different etymologies proposed for it by philologists and linguists during the last two hundred years, though he admits that {{qi|most [...] are fanciful}}.{{Sfn|Sakellariou|1977|pp=101–104}} An ancient etymology based on mere similarity of sounds links ''pelasgos'' to ''pelargos'' {{gloss|[[stork]]}},{{Sfn|Beekes|2009|p=1165}} postulating that the Pelasgians were migrants like storks, possibly from [[Arcadia (regional unit)|Arcadia]], where they nest.<ref name=":0" /> [[Aristophanes]] deals effectively with this etymology in his comedy ''[[The Birds (play)|The Birds]]''. One of the laws of "the storks" in the satirical [[Cloud Cuckoo Land]] ({{langx|grc|Νεφελοκοκκυγία|Nephelokokkugía}}), playing upon the Athenian belief that they were originally Pelasgians, is that grown-up storks must support their parents by migrating elsewhere and conducting warfare. [[Gilbert Murray]] summarized the derivation from ''pelas gē'' {{gloss|neighboring land}}, current at his time: {{qi|If Pelasgoi is connected with {{lang|grc|πέλας}}, 'near', the word would mean 'neighbor' and would denote the nearest strange people to the invading Greeks}}.{{Sfn|Murray|1960|p=43}} [[Julius Pokorny]] derived Pelasgoi from ''*pelag-skoi'' {{gloss|flatland-inhabitants}}; specifically, {{qi|inhabitants of the [[Thessalian plain]]}}.{{Sfn|Pokorny|1969|pp=831–832}} He details a previous derivation, which appears in English at least as early as [[William Ewart Gladstone]]'s ''Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age'';{{Sfn|Gladstone|1858|loc=Chapter 2, Section 3, "Derivation of the Pelasgian Name", pp. 211–215}} if the Pelasgians were not [[Indo-Europeans]], the name in this derivation must have been assigned by the [[Hellenes]]. [[Ernest Klein]] argued that the ancient Greek word for {{gloss|sea}}, ''pelagos'', and the Doric word ''plagos'' {{gloss|side}} (which is flat), shared the same root, ''*plāk-'', and that ''*pelag-skoi'' therefore meant {{gloss|the sea men}}, where the sea is flat.{{Sfn|Klein|1966|loc="Pelasgian and Pelagic"}} This could be connected to the maritime marauders referred to as the [[Sea People]] in Egyptian records.{{cn|date=January 2025}}
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