βάσκανος

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /bás.ka.nos/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈβas.ka.nos/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈvas.ka.nos/^[1]

Forms

βάσκᾰνος (báskanos) m or f (neuter βάσκᾰνον); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is generally connected with βάσκειν (báskein, “to speak, to speak ill”), a verb known only from Hesychius, and so from Ancient Greek βάζω (bázō, “to speak”).^[2][3][1] Both Frisk and Beekes note, however, that the gloss's sense “to speak ill” may itself have been drawn from the adjective.^[3][2] Kretschmer took it as a word of spells borrowed from a northern, Thraco-Illyrian relative of φημί (phēmí, “to say”) and φάσκω (pháskō), which Beekes finds unconvincing.^[2][3]

It has also been compared with Latin fascinum (“witchcraft”), which cannot be a loan from Greek: Beekes suggests the Latin and Greek words may share an origin in a substrate, and the DGE notes the view that the whole group, with βασκευταί (baskeutaí) and βάσκιοι (báskioi), is Thracian or Illyrian.^[2][4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Aristophanes uses it as an adjective, “malicious, slanderous”, in the Knights and in Wealth, where Poverty is so called.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

As a noun it was a term of abuse, “sorcerer, devil”, in Demosthenes and Menander, and also meant a slanderer or an envious person.^[5][6][7] Beekes and Chantraine give “one who casts a spell” as a core sense, and Chantraine notes that the word is frequent in funerary inscriptions, where a jealous spirit is said to have snatched the dead away.^[2][8][5] Plutarch uses it with “eye” for the evil eye.^[5] In Sirach and in early Christian texts it is the envious one, and the Martyrdom of Polycarp pairs it with “the rival” and “the wicked one”.^[7]

Medieval vernacular Greek kept the adjective, and Modern Greek has the learned βάσκανος (váskanos), harmful, used above all of the evil eye and of an ill fate.^[9][10]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it of malicious persons and of Poverty.^[6][5][4]
• 4th century BC – Demosthenes uses it as a term of abuse and for a slanderer.^[5][6][4]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Menander uses it as a term of abuse.^[5][6][4]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it for the evil eye.^[5][4]
• Modern Greek – The learned Modern Greek βάσκανος (váskanos) means bringing harm, especially by the evil eye.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Malicious, slanderous; envious.^[5][6][7]
2. Of spirits and of fate, jealous, malign; with “eye”, the evil eye.^[5][6]

Noun

1. One who bewitches, a sorcerer; a term of abuse.^[5][6]
2. A slanderer; an envious person.^[5][7]

Word family

• βασκανία (baskanía)
• βασκάνιον (baskánion)
• βασκαίνω (baskaínō)

Related words

• βάζω (bázō)
• Latin fascinum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
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. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ 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
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki