βοῦττις

Forms

βοῦττῐς (boûttis) f (genitive βούττῐος); third declension^[1] Also βοῦτις and βούτη.^[2][3]

Etymology

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek because its forms alternate between ⟨τ⟩ and ⟨ττ⟩, and thinks that Latin buttis (“cask”) may be borrowed from Greek.^[3][4] Frisk, on the contrary, takes the Greek word as a loanword, the same word as the Latin one,^[5] and Triantafyllidis derives it from Late Latin.^[6] Chantraine notes that the Latin word is late and perhaps borrowed from Greek, but that the Greek word, like many names of containers, may itself be a loan.^[7] Beekes and Chantraine compare βυτίνη (butínē, “flask”), πυτίνη (putínē) and perhaps βωτίον (bōtíon) and βωσίον (bōsíon).^[3][7][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Hero's Stereometrica, for a vessel in the shape of a truncated cone.^[2][3][5]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed technical and rare, and PHILOGLOSSA counts it as poorly attested.^[8] The diminutive βουτίον (boutíon) is used in the veterinary Hippiatrica.^[2][5] Medieval Greek had diminutives such as βουτσίον (boutsíon), a wooden wine barrel and a measure of a ship's capacity,^[9] and Modern Greek βουτσί (voutsí) is a popular word for a barrel.^[6][9] Wiktionary traces Ottoman Turkish فوچی (fuçı) to this word, and through it Turkish fıçı and Albanian fuçi.^[1]

Timeline

• 1st century AD – Hero's Stereometrica uses it for a vessel shaped like a truncated cone.^[2][3]
• 6th century AD – Aëtius has the form βούτη (boútē).^[2]
• 10th century AD – The Hippiatrica has the diminutive.^[2][5]
• Modern Greek – βουτσί (voutsí) is a popular word for a barrel.^[6][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cask or vessel in the shape of a truncated cone (frustum).^[2][3][5]

Word family

• βουτίον (boutíon)

Related words

• Latin buttis
• Modern Greek βουτσί (voutsí)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f 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 Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
7. ^ a b 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
8. ^ Scarborough, Matthew (2025), PHILOGLOSSA: database of Pre-Greek and other non-Indo-European words in Ancient Greek, version 1.0
9. ^ a b c Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος