αἷμα

Forms

αἷμᾰ (haîma) n (genitive αἵμᾰτος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It has no established etymology.^[2][3] It replaced the old Indo-European word for blood, which Greek kept only in poetry as ἔαρ (éar), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésh₂r̥.^[2][3]

Weiss connects it with Old High German seim (“virgin honey”) and Welsh hufen (“cream”), from an uncertain root *sei- (“to drip”), but Beekes finds that this cannot explain the Greek vowel.^[2] Sommer related it to Sanskrit इष् (iṣ-, “refreshment”).^[2] Other proposals link it with ὀπός (opós, “plant juice”) or with αἰονάω (aionáō, “to moisten”).^[1][2] The DGE thinks the best of them starts from ἵημι (híēmi, “to send, let flow”), so that it first meant a wound or bloodshed and then blood.^[4]

Ancient writers derived it from αἴθω (aíthō, “to burn”), because blood is warm.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It means blood from Homer on, in the Iliad of blood gushing round a spear.^[6][7][8]

Semantic evolution

From Homer on it also means blood as the mark of descent, a lineage or stock, and in Pindar and later poets an offspring or descendant.^[7] Archaic and tragic poetry use it for bloodshed and murder, and Euripides for its consequence, the punishment for murder.^[7][6] Tragedy uses the plural for streams of blood.^[6][7]

Lack of blood was a sign of cowardice: Aeschines calls a man “without blood”, pale and spiritless.^[6][7] Aristotle mentions those who held that the soul is blood.^[6] Timotheus calls wine the blood of Bacchus, and the Septuagint the blood of the grape.^[6][7] In the New Testament “flesh and blood” is a human being.^[9]

The word lives on as Modern Greek αίμα (aíma),^[10][3] and in the dialects, such as Cypriot Modern Greek γαίμαν (gaíman).^[3] Its compound αἱμορροΐς (haimorrhoḯs), already in Hippocrates, is the source of the word for haemorrhoids.^[11]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for blood and for lineage.^[6][7]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it for bloodshed and murder.^[6][7][4]
• 5th century BC – Hippocrates has the compound αἱμορροΐς (haimorrhoḯs).^[11][4]
• 5th–4th century BC – Timotheus calls wine the blood of Bacchus.^[6][7][4]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle reports the view that the soul is blood, and Aeschines calls a coward bloodless.^[6][7][4]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses “flesh and blood” for a human being.^[9]
• Modern Greek – Modern Greek αίμα (aíma) continues it.^[10][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Blood, of humans, animals or gods; in the plural, streams of blood.^[6][7]
2. Something like blood: wine, as the blood of Bacchus or of the grape; a red dye from alkanet.^[6][7]
3. Spirit, courage, of which bloodlessness is the lack.^[6][7]
4. Bloodshed, murder; the punishment for murder.^[6][7]
5. Blood as a mark of kinship: lineage, stock.^[7]
6. An offspring or descendant; collectively, progeny; a blood relation.^[7]

Word family

• αἱμάτινος (haimátinos)
• αἱμορροΐς (haimorrhoḯs)
• ἀναιμία (anaimíā)

Related words

• ἔαρ (éar)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 Heggarty, Paul, et al. (2023), Indo-European Cognate Relationships (IE-CoR), Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, https://iecor.clld.org
4. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
5. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
9. ^ a b 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
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας