γάζα

Forms

γᾰ́ζᾰ (gáza) f (genitive γᾰ́ζης); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Persian, a word of Persian origin, as the Latin geographer Pomponius Mela already says.^[2][3][4] The Iranian word is attested as Middle Persian ganǰ (“treasure, treasury”), and it ultimately goes back to Median.^[2][5] Rosół classes it among the Iranian loanwords that may have reached Greek through a Semitic language, since the word spread widely in the Near East.^[5] In Greek it is used only of eastern countries and their rulers.^[5]

Latin gaza was borrowed from Greek, and probably also Classical Syriac ܓܙܐ (gazzā).^[2][3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Theophrastus and in an inscription of the 3rd century BC, meaning a royal treasury or treasure.^[7][3][2]

Semantic evolution

Polybius uses it for a large sum of money.^[7][3] In the Septuagint and the New Testament it is the treasury of a ruler: in Acts 8:27 an official is in charge of all of a queen's treasury.^[7][8] From it were formed γαζοφύλαξ (gazophúlax), the keeper of the treasure, and γαζοφυλάκιον (gazophulákion), the treasury itself, which the New Testament also uses.^[3][5]

Latin took the word over as Latin gaza.^[6][2]

Timeline

• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus uses it for a treasure.^[7][9]
• 3rd century BC – An inscription (OGI 54) uses it for the royal treasury.^[7][3]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it for a large sum of money.^[7][9]
• 2nd century BC – The Septuagint uses it for a king's treasure.^[10][7]
• 1st century BC – Diodorus Siculus speaks of the royal treasury.^[7][9]
• 1st century AD – Acts 8:27 uses it for a queen's treasury.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A treasure; the royal treasury of an eastern ruler.^[7][8][3]
2. A large sum of money.^[7]

Word family

• γαζοφύλαξ (gazophúlax)
• γαζοφυλάκιον (gazophulákion)

Related words

• Latin gaza

Usage notes

Modern Greek γάζα (gáza) “gauze” is a different word: a learned borrowing from French, which named the fabric after the city of Gaza.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 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
4. ^ Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b c d Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
6. ^ a b Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
10. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
11. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki