βορά

Forms

βορᾱ́ (borā́) f (genitive βορᾶς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *gʷorā́, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *gʷorh₃éh₂, from the root Proto-Indo-European *gʷerh₃- (“to devour”).^[1][2] Frisk calls it a regular verbal noun of a primary verb that Greek replaced with βιβρώσκω (bibrṓskō), which is built on the zero grade of the same root.^[3][2] The o-grade also appears in old compounds with a verbal second member, such as Homeric δημοβόρος (dēmobóros, “devouring the people”).^[3][2]

Latin vorō (“to devour”) may be a denominative verb from a noun matching βορά.^[2][3] The verb of the root survives in Lithuanian gérti (“to drink”).^[3] Babiniotis connects βάραθρον (bárathron) with it, but Beekes rejects that link.^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Pindar and Aeschylus, meaning the food of beasts of prey.^[5][6] In the Agamemnon Aeschylus uses it of the flesh of Thyestes' children served to their father as a meal.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

In tragedy and in Herodotus it is above all the flesh that animals tear, and the word of cannibal feasts; it is mostly poetic.^[5][3][7] Less often it means plain food for people, as in Pindar, Aeschylus' Persians and Sophocles' Philoctetes.^[5] Euripides uses it of gluttony, saying that what is good does not lie in feeding the belly.^[5]

Aristotle has the lion rejoice that it will have its prey.^[5] In Jewish and Christian Greek it keeps the sense of food for wild beasts: Ignatius of Antioch asks to be left to become food for them.^[8][9]

Kriaras records it in a medieval medical manuscript, and it lives on in some dialects.^[10] Modern Greek has it as a learned word, βορά (vorá), the prey of carnivores, and figuratively something left at the mercy of others.^[11]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it of food, and Aeschylus of the flesh eaten by beasts and of Thyestes' feast.^[5][12]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of a cannibal feast, and Sophocles and Euripides of bodies left as food for dogs and birds.^[5][12]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it of the prey a lion looks forward to.^[5][12]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Ignatius of Antioch asks to become food for the wild beasts.^[8][12]
• 1100–1669 – A medieval medical manuscript uses it of food for the mouth.^[10]
• Modern Greek – It survives as a learned word for the prey of carnivores.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. Food of beasts of prey, carrion.^[5][7]
2. Flesh eaten at a cannibal feast.^[5]
3. (less often) Food of people in general.^[5]
4. Gluttony, the filling of the belly.^[5]

Related words

• βιβρώσκω (bibrṓskō)
• βρῶμα (brôma)
• βρῶσις (brôsis)
• Latin vorō

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 d e Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b 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
9. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
10. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
12. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge