Etymologically
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γίγνομαι

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /ɡí.ɡno.mai̯/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈʝi.ɣno.mɛ/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈʝi.ɣno.me/[1]

Forms

γῐ́γνομαι (gígnomai) [1] Ionic, and after Aristotle in general, γίνομαι;[2] Attic inscriptions of the 5th and 4th centuries BC still write γιγν-.[2] Thessalian γίνυμαι, Boeotian γίνιουμαι.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *gígnomai,[1] inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ǵíǵn̥h₁eti, the reduplicated present of *ǵenh₁- (“to beget, give birth”).[1][3][4] The reduplicated present is also found in Latin gignō (“to beget”), which is active; in Greek the active forms gave way to τίκτω (tíktō), and the verb became a deponent.[3][1] The DGE explains it as the root in the zero grade.[5] The aorist corresponds to a Sanskrit root aorist and the perfect γέγονα (gégona) to a Sanskrit perfect.[3]

The same root gave many Greek nouns with exact matches elsewhere: γένος (génos) beside genus, γενέτωρ (genétōr) beside genitor, and γένεσις (génesis);[3] Latin nāscor (“to be born”) belongs to the same root.[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is common from the Iliad on.[6][7] Chantraine takes “to be born” as the original sense, kept in the perfect with an accusative to give a person's age, but notes that Homer already uses it for “to become” and “to happen”.[8]

Semantic evolution

Chantraine finds the two clearly different senses, “to be born” and “to become”, throughout the Greek family of words from this root.[8] The verb came to serve as an emphatic substitute for εἰμί (eimí, “to be”), its aorist acting as the aorist of “to be”, and it was used of arriving at a place.[8] It is used of people being born and of being the child of a parent; of things coming into existence; of times and seasons arriving, the perfect meaning that a time has passed; of events taking place; and impersonally, “it happens that”.[7] With a predicate it means to become or prove to be something, and with an adverb or phrase, to come to be in a place or condition.[7]

The form γίνομαι (gī́nomai), at first Ionic, became the general form after Aristotle, although Attic inscriptions keep γιγν- in the 5th and 4th centuries BC;[2] the Septuagint even has a first aorist.[2] Medieval vernacular Greek used γίνομαι,[9] and Modern Greek γίνομαι (gínomai, “to become, happen”) continues the Hellenistic form.[10]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad uses it for being born, becoming and happening.[7][8]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod has the athematic aorist ἔγεντο.[2][5]
  • 6th century BC – Theognis uses it impersonally, “it happens that”.[7][5]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Attic inscriptions write γιγν-.[2]
  • 4th century BC – After Aristotle the Ionic form γίνομαι becomes general.[2][5]
  • Septuagint – A first aorist ἐγενάμην appears.[2]
  • Modern Greek – γίνομαι, “to become, happen”, continues the Hellenistic form.[10]

Meanings

Verb

  1. Of people, to be born; to be the child of a parent or ancestor.[7][2]
  2. Of things in nature, to be produced, come into being.[7]
  3. To come about, arise.[7]
  4. Of times and seasons, to come; in the perfect, to have passed.[7]
  5. Of events, to take place, happen.[7]
  6. (impersonal) It happens, it turns out that something is so.[7]
  7. To become, come or prove to be something.[7]
  8. To come to be in a certain place, condition or situation; to arrive.[7][8]

Word family

  • ἀναγίγνομαι (anagígnomai)
  • ἀπογίγνομαι (apogígnomai)
  • διαγίγνομαι (diagígnomai)
  • ἐγγίγνομαι (engígnomai)
  • ἐκγίγνομαι (ekgígnomai)
  • ἐπιγίγνομαι (epigígnomai)
  • μεταγίγνομαι (metagígnomai)
  • παραγίγνομαι (paragígnomai)
  • περιγίγνομαι (perigígnomai)
  • προγίγνομαι (progígnomai)
  • προσγίγνομαι (prosgígnomai)
  • προσεπιγίγνομαι (prosepigígnomai)
  • γενεά (geneā́)
  • γένεσις (génesis)
  • γεννάω (gennáō)
  • γένος (génos)
  • γηγενής (gēgenḗs)
  • γόνος (gónos)
  • ὀψίγονος (opsígonos)
  • συγγενής (sungenḗs)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
  5. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  6. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e 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
  9. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki