βοτάνη

Forms

βοτᾰ́νη (botánē) f (genitive βοτᾰ́νης); first declension^[1] Doric βοτάνα.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek βόσκω (bóskō, “to feed, tend”),^[4][5][1] with the suffix -άνη (-ánē).^[1] Frisk explains it as a formation on a noun in -τ- from that verb, standing beside βοτόν (botón, “grazing animal”) as πλεκτάνη (plektánē) stands beside πλεκτός (plektós) and λεκάνη (lekánē) beside λέκος (lékos);^[6] Meillet took the τ for a consonant inserted to fill a hiatus.^[6] Babiniotis likewise derives it from that noun.^[7]

The verb is an old Indo-European verb, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷeh₃- (“to feed, tend”); its nearest relative is Lithuanian gúotas (“herd”), and the noun continues *gʷh₃-to-.^[4]

The Etymologicum Magnum explained it as “stretching by force”, that is, growing.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is the place where animals feed: in the Iliad (13.493) flocks follow the ram from the pasture, and in the Odyssey (10.411) it is the fodder with which cattle have filled themselves.^[9][5][10]

Semantic evolution

The classical senses stay close to the Homeric ones: pasture, and the green growth on which animals graze.^[2][5] Pindar calls Nemea “the lion's pasture”, with reference to the celery that crowned the victors there.^[5][2] Plato uses it figuratively of the influences on which people are raised, as in the image of growing up “in a bad pasture”, and of the rich as the drones' pasture.^[5][10]

With the Hippocratic writers and Theophrastus it becomes the general word for a herb, often contrasted with roots, and for weeds;^[10][5] Dioscorides calls vervain the “sacred herb”.^[10][5][11] In the Septuagint it renders the herbage of the earth in the Creation story, and in early Christian writers such as Ignatius it is used of evil persons and false teachings as weeds.^[12][13] It was borrowed into Coptic as ⲃⲟⲧⲁⲛⲏ (botanē).^[14]

Medieval vernacular Greek used it for grass, for medicinal and magical herbs, and, in Doukas, for gunpowder.^[15] Modern Greek has βοτάνη (votáni) for a forage or medicinal plant and, more commonly, βότανο (vótano), a herb, especially a medicinal or magic one, a medieval back-formation from βοτανίζω (botanízō).^[16][17] The derivative βοτανικός (botanikós) was borrowed into many languages, as English botanical and French botanique.^[7]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for pasture and the Odyssey for fodder.^[9][5]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar calls Nemea “the lion's pasture”.^[5][2]
• 5th century BC – Euripides uses it for pasture and vegetation; the Hippocratic writings use it for herbs as opposed to roots.^[10][2]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it figuratively of a bad pasture for the young.^[5][10]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus uses it for herbs and for weeds.^[5]
• 1st century AD – Dioscorides names vervain the “sacred herb”.^[5][11]
• 2nd century AD – An Oxyrhynchus papyrus uses it for weeds.^[5]
• About AD 400 – The earliest Coptic manuscripts with the borrowed word are dated.^[14]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular texts use it for medicinal and magical herbs, and Doukas for gunpowder.^[15]
• Modern Greek – Herbs are usually called βότανο (vótano).^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. Pasture, grazing land.^[5][2][10]
2. Fodder, pasturage.^[5][2][9]
3. Vegetation, herbage.^[2][13]
4. A herb or plant.^[5][2][18]
5. A weed; figuratively, of evil persons or false teachings (early Christian).^[5][13]
6. (plural) Plants as material for clothing, as opposed to skins.^[5]
7. In ἱερὰ βοτάνη, “sacred herb”, vervain.^[5][11]

Word family

• βοτανικός (botanikós)
• ἱεροβοτάνη (hierobotánē)
• βοτάνιον (botánion)
• βοτανίζω (botanízō)
• βοτανώδης (botanṓdēs)

Related words

• βόσκω (bóskō)
• βοτόν (botón)
• English botany

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ Woordenboek Grieks/Nederlands (2012–), Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, https://woordenboekgrieks.nl
4. ^ a b 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
7. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
8. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
10. ^ a b c d e f g Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
11. ^ a b c Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2002–2010), Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill
12. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
15. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
16. ^ Πολυλεξικό, in the encyclopedia Επιστήμη και Ζωή, Athens
17. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
18. ^ United Bible Societies (2023), UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (revised Louw–Nida semantic domains), open-licence ed.