βᾶρις

βᾶρις¹ Egyptian boat

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /bâː.ris/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈβa.ris/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈva.ris/^[1]

Forms

βᾶρῐς (bâris) f (genitive βᾱ́ρῐδος); third declension^[1] The genitive is βάριδος, Ionic βάριος; the Ionic plural is βάριες.^[2][3]

Etymology

The boat is a word of Egyptian origin, borrowed from Egyptian bꜣjr (“transport ship”).^[1][3][4] Beekes compares the Coptic word for a boat, Coptic ⲃⲁⲁⲣⲉ (baare).^[3] Wiktionary traces the Greek word through Coptic and Demotic back to the Egyptian.^[3][1] Furnée instead takes all these words to be loans from a Mediterranean substrate.^[3] An intensified form βούβαρις (boúbaris) occurs once.^[3]

From the Greek come Latin bāris and, through an unattested diminutive, barca (“bark, boat”).^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Aeschylus uses it in the Suppliant Women and the Persians of the ships of foreigners.^[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

Herodotus describes the flat-bottomed Nile barges by this name, and Ptolemaic papyri of the 3rd century BC use it of boats on the Nile.^[2][4][5] Euripides speaks of “barbarian” barides, and Lycophron calls Odysseus' raft a baris.^[2][5] Later writers use it of the boats of the dead and of Osiris, and Plutarch of a boat made of papyrus.^[5]

The word was borrowed as Latin bāris and into English as the learned baris.^[1]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it of foreign sea-going ships.^[4][2][5]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus describes the Nile barges called barides.^[2][4][5]
• 3rd century BC – Papyri from Egypt use it of Nile boats.^[2][5]
• 1st century BC – Diodorus Siculus uses it of the boats that carry the dead.^[5]
• 6th century AD – Procopius still uses the word.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A flat-bottomed boat used on the Nile, a barge.^[2][4]
2. Any foreign, non-Greek ship; poetically, a raft.^[4][5]

βᾶρις² large house, tower

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /bâː.ris/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈβa.ris/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈva.ris/^[1]

Forms

βᾶρῐς (bâris) f (genitive βᾱ́ρεως); third declension^[1]

Etymology

The large house has an origin of its own, unrelated to the boat.^[6][3] Beekes takes it as probably Illyrian, following Krahe, with ⟨ᾱ⟩ from ⟨αυ⟩, and compares the gloss βαυρία (bauría, “house”), said to be Messapian, and βύριον (búrion); alternatively, a Pre-Greek form with ⟨w⟩ would explain the interchange of ⟨βαρ-⟩, ⟨βαυρ-⟩ and ⟨βυρ-⟩.^[3][1] The DGE suggests instead a link with Hittite pir (“house”) and parna (“building”), borrowed through Luwian or another language of Asia Minor.^[5] Wiktionary notes that a link with Albanian words for a dwelling is unlikely.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

An inscription from Didyma of the 3rd century BC uses it of a farmstead, listed with a village and its land.^[5] Stephanus of Byzantium reports that Posidippus used it of a house and Ephorus of a block of dwellings.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

In the Septuagint it is a fortified building, a tower or palace: a scroll is found in the baris at Ecbatana, and a psalm speaks of ivory towers.^[5][2] Josephus uses it of a tower, and an inscription from Apollonia in Bulgaria still has it in the 1st–2nd century AD.^[2][5] It also occurs as a place name in many parts of the Greek world.^[3][6]

Timeline

• 3rd century BC – An inscription from Didyma uses it of a farmstead.^[5]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – The Septuagint uses it of towers and fortified palaces.^[2][5]
• 1st century AD – Josephus uses it of a tower.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A farmstead or country house.^[5][1]
2. A large fortified building, a tower or palace.^[2][5]