Etymologically
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αἰετός

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /ai̯.e.tós/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ɛ.eˈtos/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /e.eˈtos/[1]

Forms

αἰετός (aietós) m (genitive αἰετοῦ); second declension[1] Attic ἀετός (āetós), the usual later form;[2][3][4] Aeolic αἴετος (aíetos);[2][3][4] Pergaean αἰβετός (aibetós) (Hesychius); αἰητός (aiētós) in Aratus is artificial.[2][3][4] αἰετός is the Epic, lyric, Ionic and early Attic form; it is also found in Attic inscriptions of the 5th and 4th centuries BC.[5][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *aywetós, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewyetós, from *h₂éwis (“bird”).[1][2][4] The older form *aiwetós is shown by Hesychius' Pergaean αἰβετός (aibetós), with β for /w/; the suffix -ετός (-etós) is that of νιφετός (niphetós) and πυρετός (puretós).[2][6]

Cognate with Latin avis (“bird”), Sanskrit वि (ví, “bird”) and Old Armenian հաւ (haw, “bird”); οἰωνός (oiōnós, “bird of omen”) belongs to the same root.[1][4][6] Beekes rejects a substrate origin, which Furnée built on the artificial form αἰητός (aiētós), and a Semitic one.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it for the eagle, the most perfect of birds of omen and the favourite of Zeus; the Iliad names a dark hunting eagle and a “dusky” one.[7][5][4]

Semantic evolution

As the bird of Zeus the eagle is his “winged hound” in Aeschylus, and an eagle on the right was a good omen.[5][4] Proverbs used it of what is out of reach, “an eagle in the clouds” (Aristophanes), and Aristophanes has the proverb “I will act as a beetle midwife to an eagle”.[5][4] By resemblance to outspread wings it named the pediment of a temple (Pindar, Euripides, Aristophanes), and it also named the eagle standard of the Persian king (Xenophon) and of the Roman legions (Plutarch), the constellation Aquila, and the eagle-ray.[5][3] In the Gospels it is a carrion bird, perhaps the vulture.[3][4]

Medieval Greek had αετός (aetós) beside αϊτός (aïtós), both still in use.[8][6] Modern Greek αετός (aetós) is the eagle and, after Italian aquilone, a kite.[9]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for the eagle as a bird of omen.[7][5]
  • 7th century BC – Archilochus has the fox and the eagle joining in partnership.[4]
  • 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it of a temple pediment;[5][3][4] Aeschylus calls the eagle the hound of Zeus.[5][3][4]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Xenophon uses it for the Persian royal standard.[5][3][4]
  • 4th–3rd century BC – Aratus uses it for the constellation Aquila.[5][4]
  • 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it for the standard of a Roman legion.[5][3][4]
  • Modern Greek – Modern Greek αετός (aetós) means “eagle” and also “kite”.[9][8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An eagle, especially as the bird of Zeus and a bird of omen.[5][3]
  2. An omen.[5]
  3. An eagle standard, of the Persian king or a Roman legion.[5][3]
  4. (architecture) The pediment or gable of a temple.[5][3]
  5. The constellation Aquila.[5]
  6. The eagle ray.[5]
  7. (New Testament) A carrion bird, a vulture.[3][4]
  • ἀέτωμα (aétōma)
  • οἰωνός (oiōnós)
  • Latin avis

Usage notes

Proverbs: “a swift eagle among birds” (Pindar); “an eagle in the clouds”, of what cannot be reached (Aristophanes); “you are teaching an eagle to fly”, of one who would teach a better expert (Suda).[5][4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f 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
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  7. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  8. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki