βρύω

Forms

βρῠ́ω (brúō) ^[1]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.^[2][3] Comparisons with Latin frutex (“shrub”), with Old High German krūt (“herb”) and with Celtic words for the belly have been proposed, but none is convincing.^[3][1] Pokorny tentatively places it under Proto-Indo-European *gʷeru- (“spit, pole”), taking the sense to have been “to sprout (a branch)”.^[4][1]

The noun βρύον (brúon) “moss, catkin” appears to be a verbal noun from it.^[3] From the compound ἔμβρυον (émbruon), literally “that which grows”, comes, through Medieval Latin, the English word embryo.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Iliad an olive shoot “swells” with white blossom; the verb takes a dative of what a thing teems with.^[6][7][8]

Semantic evolution

The verb is poetic and occurs mostly in the present.^[6][9] Lyric and tragic poets used it of places, garlands and people that teem or are decked with plants: Sophocles' grove at Colonus abounds in bay, olive and vine, and in Bacchylides temples teem with festivals of sacrifice.^[6][7] It was also used figuratively of youth, boldness and fame.^[7][10]

In later prose it became transitive, “to pour forth”: the Epistle of James asks whether a spring can gush both sweet and bitter water.^[6][11] Procopius uses an aorist of water bursting out of conduits.^[6][9] The Hellenistic noun βρύσις (brúsis) “spring” survives as Modern Greek βρύση (vrýsi, “tap, fountain”).^[12][13]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it of an olive shoot swelling with blossom.^[6][8]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it of a god swelling with boldness.^[7][10]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it of a place that abounds in bay, olive and vine.^[6][7]
• 4th century BC – Xenophon uses it of the earth teeming with growth.^[6][7]
• 1st century AD – The Epistle of James uses it transitively of a spring pouring forth water.^[11][6]
• 6th century AD – Procopius uses an aorist of water gushing from conduits.^[6][9]
• 14th century – The English word embryo is borrowed through Medieval Latin from the compound ἔμβρυον (émbruon).^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To swell or teem with growth; of plants, to bloom with flowers or leaves.^[6][7]
2. Of land or a place, to abound in vegetation; with the genitive, to be full of.^[6][7]
3. Of people, to be richly decked with garlands; figuratively, to flourish or overflow with youth, boldness or fame.^[7][10]
4. (later, transitive) To pour forth, gush with; to make something grow.^[6][11]

Word family

• βρυάζω (bruázō)
• βρύον (brúon)
• ἔμβρυον (émbruon)
• βρυασμός (bruasmós)
• βρυόεις (bruóeis)
• βρυόομαι (bruóomai)
• βρύσις (brúsis)
• βρυώδης (bruṓdēs)
• βρυωνία (bruōníā)
• ἔμβρυος (émbruos)

Related words

• English embryo
• Modern Greek βρύση (vrýsi)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
9. ^ a b c 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
10. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
11. ^ 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
12. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
13. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki