αἴθω

Forms

αἴθω (aíthō); only present and imperfect (ᾖθον), middle and passive αἴθομαι, Aeolic feminine participle αἴθοισα (Pindar).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *áitʰō,^[1] inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eydʰ- (“to kindle, burn”), an old verbal root.^[3][1] LIV classes the Greek verb as a full-grade e-present.^[3][4][1] Sanskrit has the root with a nasal present, Sanskrit इन्द्धे (inddhé, “kindles”).^[3][1] The noun αἶθος (aîthos, “burning heat”) may be of PIE date.^[3] Other derivatives of the root are Latin aestās (“summer”), aestus (“heat”) and aedēs (“dwelling, temple”), originally the hearth, as well as Old English ād (“blaze, funeral pyre”) and Old Norse eisa (“burning coals”).^[3][5] The zero grade probably appears in ἰθαρός (itharós).^[3][6]

Chantraine explains the wide spread of senses in the family from the single idea of burning: αἰθός (aithós) means both “shining” and “burnt”, αἰθύσσω (aithússō) passed from flashing to stirring, and αἰθήρ (aithḗr) formed a group of its own.^[7]

The Etymologicum Magnum derives αἴθω from δαίω (daíō, “to kindle”) by transposition and a change of δ into θ.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer only the participle of the middle occurs, “burning, blazing”: “the might of blazing fire” (Iliad 6.182), burning torches (Odyssey 1.428), a burning city.^[8][9][6] The feminine participle used as a noun, αἴθουσα (aíthousa), is Homer's name for a portico, perhaps first a place where a fire was lit.^[7]

Semantic evolution

After Homer the active is used in a causative sense, “to set alight, kindle”: Herodotus and Aeschylus of fires, Sophocles of sacrifices, Euripides of watch-fires, Theocritus of bay leaves.^[9][2] Rarely it is intransitive, “to blaze”, in Pindar and Sophocles.^[9] It is used figuratively of love that burns (Xenophon, Callimachus, Theocritus), and Apollonius uses it of thirst and hunger.^[2] Attic prose hardly knows the verb and says καίω (kaíō) instead.^[7]

The verb is lost in Modern Greek, which keeps the derivative Modern Greek αιθέρας (aithéras) and several compounds.^[5]

Timeline

• Homer – The middle participle is used of blazing fire, torches and burning cities.^[8][9]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it intransitively, “to blaze”.^[9][6]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses the active for kindling a fire.^[9][6]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theocritus has bay leaves set alight, and love kindling a blaze.^[2][6]
• 12th century AD – The Etymologicum Magnum derives it from δαίω.^[5]
• Modern Greek – The verb is lost; its derivative αιθέρας survives.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To set alight, kindle (a fire, watch-fires, sacrifices, houses).^[2][9]
2. (intransitive) To blaze, burn.^[2][9]
3. (middle and passive) To burn, blaze; of an axle, to grow red-hot.^[2][6]
4. (figurative) To burn with love, thirst or hunger.^[2]

Word family

• αἰθήρ (aithḗr)
• αἶθος (aîthos)
• αἰθός (aithós)
• αἶθοψ (aîthops)
• αἴθυγμα (aíthugma)
• αἰθύσσω (aithússō)
• αἴθων (aíthōn)
• αἰθήεις (aithḗeis)
• αἰθής (aithḗs)

Related words

• αἰθάλη (aithálē)
• αἴθουσα (aíthousa)
• Latin aestās
• Latin aedēs

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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
4. ^ Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
5. ^ a b c d e Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
6. ^ a b c d e f Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
7. ^ a b c 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
8. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press