Σείριος

Forms

Σείρῐος (Seírios) m (genitive Σειρίου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is not certainly known.^[2][3] If its first meaning was “sparkling, flickering” and it is Indo-European, it may belong with σείω (seíō, “to shake”) to a verb meaning “to be excited, to sparkle” seen in Sanskrit त्विष् (tviṣ-) and Sanskrit त्वेष (tveṣá-, “tempestuous, sparkling”), and an Avestan word for “glittering” has the same suffix.^[4][2][3] The Greek form would then go back to Proto-Indo-European *twéys-ro- or, if its first syllable once had a long /i/, to *twis-ro-.^[4][1] Chantraine also reports a comparison with the Avestan and Sanskrit names of stars, one of which may be Sirius.^[3] Furnée instead compares the Cretan gloss τίριος (tírios, “summer”); if that is right, Beekes notes, the word could be Pre-Greek.^[4]

Latin borrowed it as Sirius.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Hesiod as the name of the dog star, alone or with ἀστήρ (astḗr, “star”).^[4][6][7]

Semantic evolution

Sirius was the star whose rising at dawn marked the hottest part of the year, so the word was linked with burning and drought.^[6][7][3] Already in Archilochus, according to Hesychius, it was used of the sun, and Ibycus and Alcman used it of stars in general, while Euripides perhaps used it of a bright planet.^[6][4] As an adjective it meant “glowing, scorching”, and in Timotheus' Persians it qualifies ships, probably reinterpreted as “destructive”.^[4][2][6] Aeschylus and Sophocles call the star the “Sirian dog”.^[6][7]

Its derivatives belong to heat: σειριόεις (seirióeis, “scorching”), σειριάω (seiriáō, “to scorch”), used by Aratus of the star and by the physicians of sunstroke, and the noun σειρίασις (seiríasis).^[2] Light summer garments were called σείριον (seírion) and similar names.^[2][3][6] The Suda's form “σείρ” for the sun is a late back-formation.^[2][6][8]

English Sirius comes from Latin.^[9] Modern Greek Σείριος (Seírios) is a learned word for the star.^[10]

Timeline

• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod names the star in the Works and Days and the Shield.^[6][4][11]
• 7th century BC – Archilochus uses it, according to Hesychius, of the sun.^[6][4][11]
• 6th century BC – Theognis names the star.^[12][11]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus calls it the “Sirian dog”.^[6][7][11]
• 5th–4th century BC – Timotheus uses it of ships in the sense “destructive”.^[6][4][11]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Soranus calls sunstroke the “Sirian affliction”.^[6][11]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Harpocration records the name of a light summer garment derived from it.^[6][11]
• Late 14th century – English borrows the name, through Latin, as Sirius.^[9]
• Modern Greek – The word survives as the learned name of the star.^[10]

Meanings

Proper noun

1. Sirius, the dog star, whose rising marked the hottest season.^[6][7][13]
2. (Archilochus, according to Hesychius) The sun.^[6]
3. A bright star or planet.^[6]

Adjective

1. Scorching, burning.^[4][2][13]
2. Destructive.^[6][4]

Word family

• σειριόεις (seirióeis)
• σειριάω (seiriáō)
• σειρίασις (seiríasis)

Related words

• Latin sirius
• English Sirius

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
3. ^ a b c d e Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ Adler, Ada, ed. (1928–1938), Suidae Lexicon, 5 vols, Leipzig: Teubner
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ a b c d e f g Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
12. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
13. ^ a b Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli