Etymologically
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βῖκος

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /bîː.kos/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈβi.kos/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈvi.kos/[1]

Forms

βῖκος (bîkos) m (genitive βῑ́κου); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is probably a loanword.[2][3] Following Hemmerdinger, Beekes considers it borrowed from Egyptian bꜣkt (“oil flask, used as a measure”), and Wiktionary gives that origin as probable.[2][1] E. Masson thought of a Semitic source, and the CGL calls it probably Semitic.[2][3] Rosół, however, lists the comparison with Aramaic and Hebrew words for a jug and a flask among the Semitic etymologies he rejects.[4]

Beekes rejects any link with Latin fiscus (“basket”) or with βαυκάλιον (baukálion, “jug”).[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Beekes cites it from Hipponax.[2] Herodotus uses it for jars of wine.[2][3][5]

Semantic evolution

Xenophon used it for jars of wine, and papyri of the 3rd century BC for jars.[5][3] The Septuagint has it for a jar in Jeremiah.[5][6] Athenaeus, quoting Pollux, says it was also a drinking bowl.[5][4] In papyri of the Roman period it was a unit of measure.[5][2]

Timeline

  • 6th century BC – Hipponax uses the word.[2][7]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus describes jars of wine.[5][3][7]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Xenophon uses it in the Anabasis.[5][3][7]
  • 3rd century BC – Papyri from Egypt use it for a jar.[5]
  • 2nd century BC – The Septuagint's Jeremiah has it for a jar.[5][8]
  • 1st century AD – A papyrus uses it as a measure.[5]
  • 2nd–3rd century AD – Athenaeus, quoting Pollux, describes it as a drinking bowl.[5][7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A jar or cask, especially for wine.[5][3]
  2. A drinking bowl.[5]
  3. A measure of capacity.[5][2]

Usage notes

One of two other words with the same spelling, found in an inscription from Rome and also written βεῖκος, is a borrowing of Latin vīcus (“street, quarter”), and so a doublet of οἶκος (oîkos).[7][1] The other is a name of the vetch, used by Galen and Oribasius.[7] Modern Greek βίκος (víkos) is not the ancient word for a jar: Triantafyllidis traces it to an unattested Hellenistic *βίκος.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  4. ^ a b Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
  7. ^ a b c d e f Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  8. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  9. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki