Etymologically
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βωμός

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /bɔː.mós/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /βoˈmos/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /voˈmos/[1]

Forms

βωμός (bōmós) m (genitive βωμοῦ); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *gʷōmós,[1] inherited from Proto-Indo-European *gʷoh₂mós, a verbal noun from the root *gʷeh₂- (“to step”) of ἔβην (ébēn) “I went”, the aorist of βαίνω (baínō).[2][1][3] The first sense was a step or stand on which something is set, which fits the shape of the Greek altar, raised on a base; βάσις (básis) “step, base” shows the same development.[4][2][5] The long /o/ of the root is unexpected, and Chantraine and Frisk both note it as an anomaly.[4][5] Proposals to derive the word from Semitic have been rejected.[4][5]

Ancient grammarians already linked it with walking: the grammarian Philoxenus in the 1st century BC derived it from a verb “to go”, and Orion in the 5th century AD explained it as the place to which the blood “goes”.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Iliad it is the stand on which the body of a chariot was set once its wheels had been taken off, and in the Odyssey the base of a statue; but already in Homer it mostly means an altar, the raised altar with its base on which sacrifices were made.[7][8][9][4]

Semantic evolution

From Homer on it was above all the altar for burnt sacrifice to the gods of the sky, as opposed to the pit used for offerings to the gods below.[4] The altar was also a place of refuge: suppliants sat at it, and those not ritually clean were kept away from it.[9][8] Later it could mean a tomb or cairn, an altar-shaped cake, the title of two shaped poems in the Anthology, and, in the system of Philolaus, the central fire of the universe.[8]

In the New Testament it occurs in the Acts of the Apostles, of an altar.[10] Medieval Greek kept the word,[11] and it survives as a learned word in Modern Greek βωμός (vomós), an altar of ancient sacrifice; the phrase “to sacrifice something on the altar of” means to give it up for a cause.[12] The compound βωμολόχος (bōmolókhos) survives in Modern Greek of a person who talks obscenely.[4][13]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad uses it for a stand for a chariot and for altars, and the Odyssey for the base of a statue.[7][8]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it of altars in the Theogony and the Works and Days.[14]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus writes of setting up altars and of suppliants sitting at them.[8][15]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus also has the diminutive βωμίς (bōmís) for the steps of a pyramid.[4][15]
  • 1st century AD – The Acts of the Apostles uses it for an altar at Athens.[10]
  • Modern Greek – It survives as a learned word, Modern Greek βωμός (vomós).[12]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A raised platform or stand, for the body of a chariot.[8][9]
  2. The base or pedestal of a statue.[8][9]
  3. An altar, set on a base, for sacrifices to the gods, heroes or ancestors, and a refuge for suppliants.[8][9]
  4. (later) A tomb or cairn.[8]
  5. An altar-shaped cake.[8]
  6. (Pythagorean) The central fire of the universe, in the system of Philolaus.[8]

Word family

  • βωμολόχος (bōmolókhos)
  • βώμιος (bṓmios)
  • βωμίσκος (bōmískos)
  • βωμίς (bōmís)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
  4. ^ a b c d e f g 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
  5. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  6. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
  7. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  10. ^ 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
  11. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  12. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  13. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  14. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  15. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge