βιβρώσκω
Pronunciation
- 5th-century BC Attic: /bi.brɔ̌ːs.kɔː/[1]
- 4th-century AD Koine: /βiˈβros.ko/[1]
- 10th-century Byzantine: /viˈvros.ko/[1]
Forms
βιβρώσκω (bibrṓskō) [1]
Etymology
The verb is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *gʷerh₃- (“to swallow, devour”), a root that formed a root aorist, which suits its meaning; ἐσθίω (esthíō) served in part as its present.[2][3] The zero grade of the root survives in the verbal adjective βρωτός (brōtós), which matches Lithuanian gìrtas (“drunk”) and Sanskrit गीर्ण (gīrṇá, “swallowed”).[2][4] Greek generalised this stem ⟨βρω-⟩ through the whole verb.[2][4] The reduplicated present is late.[4] Wiktionary reconstructs it as Proto-Hellenic *gʷigʷrṓskō, with the suffix Proto-Indo-European *-sḱéti.[4][1]
Cognate with Sanskrit गिरति (giráti, “swallows”) and Latin vorō (“to devour”); the o-grade of the root is in Greek βορά (borá, “food”).[2][4][1] Chantraine counts βάραθρον (bárathron) in the same family, but Beekes rejects the link.[4][2]
Earliest recorded meaning
Homer has only the perfect stem: the Iliad speaks of devouring men and of a snake gorged on noxious herbs, and the Odyssey has a future perfect “will be eaten up”.[4][5][6]
Semantic evolution
In Classical Greek the verb means to eat voraciously, often with a note of savagery or cannibalism, and Aeschylus uses the passive of children's flesh being eaten.[5][7] Sophocles' birds are gorged with blood.[5][7] The sense could also weaken to plain “eat”, and Xenophon sets things to eat against things to drink.[4][5]
In Ionic prose and the Septuagint the perfect and aorist passive forms supplied the missing tenses of the verb “to eat”.[7][4] The present βιβρώσκω itself is not found before Babrius.[4][7] The Gospel of John uses the perfect participle for “those who had eaten”.[8] Its derivatives βρῶμα (brôma) and βρῶσις (brôsis) gave Greek words for food.[4]
Timeline
- Homer – The Iliad uses the perfect participle of a snake gorged on poisonous herbs.[7][6]
- 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses the passive of children's flesh being eaten.[5][7]
- 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of eating flesh, and Hippocratic writers use the passive.[5][7]
- 1st century AD – The Gospel of John uses the perfect participle of those who had eaten.[8]
- 1st century AD (probably) – Babrius is the first to use the present βιβρώσκω.[7][4][9]
Meanings
Verb
- To devour, eat greedily, often of beasts or of cannibalism.[5][7]
- Perfect participle: gorged, having fed on something.[5][7]
- To eat, take food.[5][8]
- (passive) Of possessions, to be eaten up, consumed.[5][7]
Word family
- βρωτός (brōtós)
- βρῶσις (brôsis)
- βρῶμα (brôma)
- βρώσιμος (brṓsimos)
- καταβιβρώσκω (katabibrṓskō)
Related words
- βορά (borá)
- Latin vorō
References
- ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 g h i j Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c 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
- ^ Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge