The words in question come from an esoteric/magic/religious text on spirit evocation called the Goetia, or Lesser Key of Solomon the King (the first book of the Lemegeton, I believe). They were found on a diagram commonly known as a triangle of evocation, wherein 'spirits' were supposed to become manifested as a result of the magician's conjurations. They've been rendered into Latin letters and probably spelled phonetically by a person who didn't speak the language. They are:
I was thinking that if I could identify the origins and meanings of those terms, I might be able to track down the earlier sources for such practices. I haven't ruled out a possible Hebrew connection, but my first guess was that they were of Greek origin (Tetragrammaton was nearby on an inscription, and I recognized that as a Greek term often written in place of the Hebrew name for Jehovah). Any suggestions you might have on translations and origins of these words would be greatly appreciated.
"ANAPHAXETON: Perhaps derived from ANA-APHASSW (to feel/touch/reach upwards)?
ANAPHENETON: Perhaps should be ANAPHAINETON: something that has been lit up
(ANA-PHAINW). If so,
then it sounds like a Greek speaker said this word, and a non-Greek speaker
wrote it, since the AI
diphthong is virtually an "E" sound (as in our word "air").
PRIMEUMATON: Looks like a combo Greco-Latin word. PRIMA (Latin) = "first"; EU
(Greek) = "good" (in
the qualitative sense, not moral); MA (Greek) = noun-making particle; TON
(Greek) = diminutive
ending. ==> "first good thing" ????"
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"I would take the second one as a phonetic spelling of anaphaineton, so
'making known, revealing', something like that. The others are too hard for
my brief analysis, but the third, as we agree, seems to involve a Latin
element. None of the words is Hebrew.
The Latin element in the third word is prim- 'first'
eumaton MAY be eumathon which would mean 'easily learnt'"
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"I am afraid I can't think of the origin of these words right now. A Greek
friend of mine from Athens suggested the following for some words.
1. Anapheneton could be derived from Anaphainome which means to become
'perceptive by vision'; to look impressive; to come out of obscurity
2. Anaphaxeton is perhaps derived from Anaphxetos which means:
something has not increased; it can not be increased.
Ana in Arabic means I am. Somehow the first word makes me think of the Sufis.
The meaning in Arabic then would be similar to Greek, but much more."
