αἰσθάνομαι

Forms

αἰσθᾰ́νομαι (aisthánomai) ^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *awistʰomai, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewis-dʰh₁-, from *h₂ew- (“to see, perceive”).^[1] Beekes and Frisk interpret it as *awis-th- and connect it with ἀΐω (aḯō, “to perceive, hear”).^[2][3][4] Beekes thinks the Greek suffix -θ-, which forms verbs of a resultant state, probably goes back to *dʰeh₁- (“to put, do”).^[2]

A similar formation is found in Latin audiō (“to hear”), and the adverbs Sanskrit आविस् (āvís, “openly, evidently”) and Avestan āuuiš (“manifestly”) are further related.^[2][1][3] Wiktionary also compares Hittite u-uḫ-ḫi (“I see”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its earliest uses are in Alcmaeon, in Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound and in Herodotus, of perceiving through the senses.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

In Attic it covers every kind of perception: seeing, hearing a cry, feeling a blow, sensing a smell, sensing the presence of a god.^[7] The Hippocratic writers list the senses it works through, sight, touch and hearing.^[5] It was used of the mind as well: to understand, to learn of something, often with a participle (“to realise that one is ill”, in Thucydides).^[5][7]

In the New Testament it means to understand something hard to grasp, as a saying in Luke.^[8]

Medieval vernacular Greek kept the verb beside a form αισθάνω, and its forms other than αισθάνω survive in the dialects.^[9] Standard Modern Greek αισθάνομαι (esthánome, “to feel”) is a learned form of the ancient verb.^[10]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses the aorist of it in the Prometheus Bound.^[6][4]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus and the Hippocratic writers use it of perception through the senses.^[5][4]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides uses it with a participle, of realising one's state.^[7][4]
• 1st century AD – The Gospel of Luke uses it of understanding a saying.^[8]
• Modern Greek – Modern Greek αισθάνομαι (esthánome) is a learned continuation of the verb.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To perceive by the senses: to see, hear, feel or smell something.^[5][7]
2. To perceive with the mind, understand, realise; to hear of, learn.^[5][7][8]

Word family

• αἴσθησις (aísthēsis)
• αἰσθητής (aisthētḗs)

Related words

• ἀΐω (aḯō)
• Latin audiō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b c d 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 Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b c Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
9. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki