βίοτος

Forms

βῐ́οτος (bíotos) m (genitive βῐότου); second declension^[1] Cretan βίετος (bíetos) in an inscription of Lato.^[2]

Etymology

In Beekes's view it is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *gʷih₃-eto- (“life”), a formation of the root *gʷeyh₃- (“to live”) with the suffix also seen in θάνατος (thánatos, “death”).^[3][1] The DGE instead sees it as formed on the stem of βίος (bíos, “life”) with the suffix -τος (-tos), and NIL marks its reconstruction as uncertain.^[2][4] Cretan βίετος (bíetos), in Beekes's view, restored the suffix as -ετος (-etos).^[3]

The same root with a t-suffix gives Latin vīta (“life”), Lithuanian gyvatà (“life”) and Old Church Slavonic животъ (životŭ, “life”).^[5][4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it for life, the span of one's life (the “end of life” in the Iliad), and above all for one's substance, the goods and stock a household lives on: in the Odyssey the suitors eat up another man's livelihood.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

It remained a poetic word.^[8][7] Hesiod uses it for the stored produce that fills the granary, Mimnermus, Empedocles and the tragedians for life itself, and Pindar for a life granted by the gods.^[2][9][10] Theognis and Euripides also use it for the good life, lived to the full.^[9] Aristophanes uses it for one's means of living.^[7]

In late Greek it is still found in prose, in a 6th-century papyrus, and an epigram uses it for the world of the living.^[7][2] The Etymologicum Magnum and Hesychius gloss it as both life and the means of living.^[11][12]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for life and for a household's substance.^[6][7]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it for stored provisions.^[2]
• 6th century BC – Mimnermus uses it for life.^[9][2]
• 5th century BC – Aeschylus and Empedocles use it for life, and Pindar for the life the gods grant.^[7][10][2]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it for one's means of living.^[7][2]
• 6th century AD – A papyrus uses it in prose.^[7][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Life, the state of being alive.^[9][6]
2. The course of a life, a lifetime.^[9][6]
3. A manner of life.^[9]
4. A good life, lived to the full.^[9]
5. Livelihood, substance, goods.^[9][7][6]
6. The world of the living, mankind.^[7]

Related words

• βίος (bíos)
• βιοτή (biotḗ)
• ζωή (zōḗ)
• Latin vīta

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
6. ^ a b c d e Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
10. ^ a b Slater, William J. (1969), Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: De Gruyter
11. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)