Papias, the 11th-century lexicographer and grammarian, on "labyrinth"

 From his Elementarium:

"or, as it were, an interior labor" (labor-int-us).

     I was put onto this by Annie Cazenave, "Chartres et Jerusalem ou la cathédrale et le temple," in Association des Amis du Centre Médiéval Européen de Chartres, Un fil d’Ariane pour le labyrinthe de Chartres:  Actes du Colloque Européen des 3 et 4 juillet 1999 (Chartres:  AACMEC, 1999), 52 (47-63), where this is called "one of those false etymologies then so frequent and often revelatory of [the medieval and sometimes (rarement) Hellenistic] mode of thought".  OED:  "< ancient Greek λαβύρινθος maze, complicated question or argument, of unknown origin"; "The traditional association of ancient Greek λαβύρινθος with the supposed Lydian word λάβρυς 'axe' (see labrys n.) is highly doubtful and the origin of this word remains unclear."
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