βάσανος
Pronunciation
- 5th-century BC Attic: /bá.sa.nos/[1]
- 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈβa.sa.nos/[1]
- 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈva.sa.nos/[1]
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
- A touchstone, a stone on which gold was rubbed to test its purity.[6][4][11]
- A test, trial, proof of genuineness.[6][9]
- Inquiry or interrogation under torture, especially of slaves.[6]
- Torture as punishment.[6]
- (Septuagint, New Testament) Severe pain, torment.[9][6]
Word family
- βασανίτης (basanítēs)
- βασανίζω (basanízō)
- βασανιστής (basanistḗs)
- βασανιστήριον (basanistḗrion)
Related words
- English basalt
References
- ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d e f Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
- ^ a b Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
- ^ 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
- ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
- ^ [Ammonius], De adfinium vocabulorum differentia, ed. K. Nickau (Leipzig: Teubner, 1966)
- ^ 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
- ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
- ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press