γέγωνα

Forms

γέγωνᾰ (gégōna) ^[1] An old perfect with present sense.^[2][3] Homer has the pluperfect ἐγεγώνει with past sense, γέγωνε as a past tense, the infinitive γεγωνέμεν and the participle γεγωνώς.^[2][4][5] From these forms came the presents γεγωνέω (gegōnéō) (infinitive γεγωνεῖν, Homer onwards) and γεγωνίσκω (gegōnískō) (Aeschylus onwards), a new aorist γεγωνῆσαι (Aeschylus) and a future γεγωνήσω (Euripides).^[2][3][6]

Etymology

The origin is unclear.^[2][7] Since Fick it has often been connected with γιγνώσκω (gignṓskō, “to know”), but the long vowel of the root is left unexplained: Chantraine judges the difficulty decisive, and the DGE calls the link phonetically impossible.^[2][3][7]

Hackstein instead derives it from a Proto-Hellenic desiderative *ge-gon-s-, from an Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *ǵh₃en- (“to call”) also seen in Tocharian A ken- (“to call”), and perhaps Latin gemō (“to groan”).^[2][1] Vine discussed the proposal, and de Vaan supports it.^[2]

Ancient grammarians derived it from the root of ‘to know’ by metathesis, or, with Didymus, from γωνία (gōnía, “corner”), because the voice reaches every corner; the Etymologicum Magnum also offers φωνέω (phōnéō, “to make a sound”).^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it for raising one's voice so as to be heard: in the Iliad οὔ πώς οἱ ἔην βώσαντι γεγωνεῖν “he could not make himself heard though he shouted” (Iliad 12.337).^[5][7][4]

Semantic evolution

In Homer it also means to shout to someone, with a dative, as in a cry to all the gods (Odyssey 8.305), and once to declare something aloud.^[5][7] It remained mostly poetic.^[6] The tragedians use the imperative γέγωνε “speak out!”: in Sophocles' Philoctetes one speaker asks another to tell him everything, so that he may know who he is.^[7][4]

Pindar, Aeschylus and Plato use the infinitive γεγωνεῖν, Thucydides the new present γεγωνίσκω (gegōnískō) for shouting as loud as one can, and Xenophon and Aristotle further present forms.^[4][6] Aeschylus has the adjective γεγωνός (gegōnós) ‘loud, clearly heard’, and Philo uses the participle of things that sound.^[2][7] The word did not survive into Modern Greek.^[8]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for shouting so as to be heard and for calling to someone.^[5][4][7]
• Before the 6th century BC – A Hesiodic fragment uses it with a dative, to call to someone.^[7]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar and Aeschylus use the infinitive γεγωνεῖν, and Aeschylus the imperative γέγωνε.^[4][7]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles uses the imperative for “tell”, and Thucydides the present γεγωνίσκω (gegōnískō).^[7][4]
• 5th–4th century BC – Xenophon and Plato use present forms of it.^[4]
• 1st century BC to 1st century AD – Philo uses the participle of sounds.^[7]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses the noun γεγώνησις.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make one's voice heard, shout so as to be heard.^[5][7][4]
2. With a dative, to call to, shout to someone.^[7][5]
3. Of things, to sound, resound.^[7]
4. (transitive) To declare aloud, tell.^[7][5][4]

Word family

• γεγωνίσκω (gegōnískō)
• γεγωνός (gegōnós)
• γεγωνέω (gegōnéō)
• γεγώνησις (gegṓnēsis)

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 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. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
6. ^ a b c d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
8. ^ a b Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
9. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press