βάσανος

Forms

βάσᾰνος (básanos) f (genitive βασάνου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Egyptian bḫn (“a hard stone”), the name of a stone that the Egyptians used as a touchstone for gold.^[2][3][1][4] It reached Greece through Lydia, as the Greek name “Lydian stone” for the touchstone suggests; how /s/ came to stand for the Egyptian sound is unclear.^[2][3][5] Rosół lists it among the Semitic etymologies to be rejected, noting that Pliny the Elder points to Egypt for the stone.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first texts, Theognis and Pindar, use it for the touchstone, literally and as an image: gold shows itself on the touchstone, and a man's mind is tested as gold is.^[6][4][7]

Semantic evolution

From the stone that tests gold the word came to mean any test or proof of genuineness, of persons, their character or their claims (Sophocles, Plato, the orators).^[6][3] Under the influence of βασανίζω (basanízō, “to test, question under torture”) it then named the interrogation of slaves under torture in judicial inquiries, and later torture as punishment.^[3][6] Ammonius distinguishes the two senses: testing, and testing by blows.^[8] In the Septuagint and the New Testament it means severe pain or torment.^[9][6]

The derived name of the stone, βασανίτης (basanítēs), was borrowed as Latin basanites, which most manuscripts of Pliny the Elder miscopy as basaltes; that form gave English basalt.^[2][3] The learned word Modern Greek βάσανος (vásanos) means a thorough test or scrutiny, while the everyday βάσανο (vásano) means torment, trouble.^[10][1]

Timeline

• 6th century BC – Theognis uses it for the touchstone of gold.^[6][4]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar says that gold shows itself on the touchstone.^[4][6]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for questioning under torture.^[6][4]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for torment.^[9][6]
• Modern Greek – Learned Modern Greek βάσανος (vásanos) means a searching test.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A touchstone, a stone on which gold was rubbed to test its purity.^[6][4][11]
2. A test, trial, proof of genuineness.^[6][9]
3. Inquiry or interrogation under torture, especially of slaves.^[6]
4. Torture as punishment.^[6]
5. (Septuagint, New Testament) Severe pain, torment.^[9][6]

Word family

• βασανίτης (basanítēs)
• βασανίζω (basanízō)
• βασανιστής (basanistḗs)
• βασανιστήριον (basanistḗrion)

Related words

• English basalt

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 c d e 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
4. ^ a b c d e f Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
5. ^ a b Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ [Ammonius], De adfinium vocabulorum differentia, ed. K. Nickau (Leipzig: Teubner, 1966)
9. ^ a b c d 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. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press