J.E. Sandys, A History of Classical Scholarship:
“Plato in the Cratylus had conjectured that πῦρ was an old ‘barbaric’ word, but had attempted to supply a derivation for γῆ. Later etymologists had added γῆ to the list of primary words, and Joannes Mauropus agrees with them, protesting against a contemporary who excluded γῆ from the primary words, and adding that, for monosyllables, we are not bound to discover etymologies.”
