Etymologically
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γελάω

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /ɡe.lá.ɔː/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ʝeˈla.o/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ʝeˈla.o/[1]

Forms

γελᾰ́ω (geláō) [1]

Etymology

It is a denominative verb from Ancient Greek γέλως (gélōs, “laughter”), made from the older neuter stem *γέλας (*gélas).[2][3] Beekes traces the noun to Proto-Indo-European *gelh₂- (“to laugh”), which Wiktionary and the LIV reconstruct with a palatal velar.[4][1][5] The zero grade appears in γαλήνη (galḗnē, “calm sea”), and Hesychius glosses γελεῖν (geleîn) as “to shine, to bloom”, which keeps the physical sense of the root.[4]

Cognate with Old Armenian ծաղր (całr, “laughter”), whose r-stem may be matched in Greek γαληρός (galērós).[4][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Iliad the soldiers laugh at a man, Homer also speaks of a heart that laughs within and of the whole earth “laughing” in the gleam of bronze.[6][7]

Semantic evolution

From Homer on it means both to laugh with pleasure and to laugh at someone; tragedy and later writers also use it transitively, “to mock”, with a passive “to be laughed at”.[6][7] Of things, the earth, a house or water “laugh”, that is, shine or look bright.[6][7] In the New Testament it is the laughter of those who are now happy, set against weeping.[8]

Medieval Greek kept γελώ, also of things that look bright and of fortune that smiles on someone.[9] It survives as Modern Greek γελώ (geló).[10][11]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad uses it of laughing at someone and of the earth shining.[6][12]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Theogony uses it of a father's house that “laughs”.[6][12]
  • 5th century BC – Sophocles uses the passive “to be mocked”.[6]
  • 4th–3rd century BC – Theocritus uses it transitively, “to deride”.[6][7]
  • 1st century AD – The Gospel of Luke sets laughing against weeping.[8]
  • Medieval Greek – Vernacular γελώ keeps the old senses.[9]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To laugh or smile with pleasure; of the heart, to rejoice.[6][7]
  2. To laugh at someone or something, derisively.[6][7]
  3. (transitive) To mock or deride; passive, to be laughed at.[6][7]
  4. (figurative) Of the earth, a house or water, to shine, beam or smile.[6][7]

Word family

  • γελασείω (gelaseíō)
  • γέλασμα (gélasma)
  • γελαστής (gelastḗs)
  • γελαστός (gelastós)
  • καταγελάω (katageláō)
  • γελοῖος (geloîos)
  • γέλως (gélōs)
  • γαλήνη (galḗnē)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  3. ^ a b 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 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
  5. ^ Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  8. ^ a b 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 Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  10. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  11. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  12. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux