Etymologically
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αὔρα

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /ǎu̯.raː/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈa.βra/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈa.vra/[1]

Forms

αὔρᾱ (aúrā) f (genitive αὔρᾱς); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *auhrā,[1] from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éwsr̥h₂ (“morning air”), a derivative of *h₂ews- (“dawn; east”).[1][2] A different ablaut grade of the same formation, *h₂ewsḗr, gave ἀήρ (āḗr, “air, mist”).[1][3] Kiparsky connected αὔρα with the word for air, pointing out that in the Odyssey it still clearly means the mist of the morning.[3] The Cambridge Greek Lexicon also takes it as probably related to the word for air, and Babiniotis explains it as a zero grade of the same stem.[4][5]

The DGE prefers the root of “blowing”, *h₂weh₁-, in its zero grade, comparing Hittite ḫuwantes (“winds”).[6] Aristotle already linked αὔρα with air, calling a breeze the air that is carried off when water turns into air.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its only Homeric occurrence is in the Odyssey (5.469), where Odysseus fears the cold αὔρη that blows from the river at dawn;[8][9] Beekes, following Kiparsky, takes the word there as the chill mist of the morning.[3]

Semantic evolution

From Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns on, it is a poetic word for a breeze, above all a cool one coming off the sea or a river, or the fresh air of a pleasant place; it is rare in early prose, though Herodotus says that the Nile alone among rivers sends out no breezes, and Plato speaks of a breeze that brings health from wholesome places.[8][4][6] Pindar and Euripides use the shifting breeze as an image of changeability, and Euripides speaks figuratively of the breeze of a household or of war.[4] Aristophanes extends it to the fragrant steam of incense, and the comic poet Antiphanes to the golden smell of a fried fish.[8][4]

In the Septuagint it is the light air into which a storm settles, and in Job a breath heard together with a voice; the First Epistle of Clement quotes that passage.[6][10] Latin aura may have been borrowed from it, but Saalfeld marks this as uncertain.[11]

Modern Greek αύρα (ávra) is a learned word for a breeze; in the sense of a person's “aura” it follows French aura, which goes back through Latin to αὔρα.[12]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Odyssey uses it once, of the cold air from a river at dawn.[8][9][3]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Works and Days speaks of clear breezes and a harmless sea.[6][9]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus says that the Nile sends out no breezes.[8][6]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it of the steam of incense.[8][4]
  • 4th century BC – The treatise On the Cosmos ascribed to Aristotle defines breezes as currents of air coming from water.[8][6]
  • Modern Greek – The word survives as αύρα, a learned word, which also takes the sense “aura” from French.[12]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A breeze, especially a cool one from the sea or a river; fresh morning air.[8][4][6]
  2. (figurative) A changing wind of fortune or mood; the breath or atmosphere of a house or of war.[4]
  3. An aroma or steam, such as that of incense or of torches.[8][4]
  4. (Euripides) An impulse of character; the onrush of a birth pang.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
  3. ^ a b c d 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. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  5. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  10. ^ 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
  11. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  12. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki