γῆρας

Forms

γῆρᾰς (gêras) n (genitive γήρᾰος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ǵērh₂-s, a lengthened-grade derivative of *ǵerh₂- (“to grow old”).^[1] Beekes gives the root as “be old, ripen”.^[2] Cognate with Sanskrit जरा (jarā́, “old age”).^[1]

Within Greek it stands beside γέρας (géras, “gift of honour”),^[2] γέρων (gérōn, “old man”) and γραῦς (graûs, “old woman”).^[2] Its long vowel is the puzzle: Beekes notes that it has been traced to the s-aorist of the verb, but this cannot be proved.^[2] Frisk thinks the length passed from the verb γηράσκω (gēráskō) to the noun, leaving the noun for “honour” isolated with the short vowel and the transferred sense “honour”, and he rejects an influence of ἥβη (hḗbē, “youth”).^[3] The DGE also calls the long grade unexplained.^[4]

Ancient writers linked it with the word for honour, since old age earns honour, or derived it from γῆ (gê, “earth”), as the time when one bends towards the earth.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

From the Iliad on it means old age, often with epithets such as “grievous” or “hateful”, and Homer speaks of the “threshold of old age”.^[6][7][4]

Semantic evolution

Old age is personified in Hesiod's Theogony.^[4] The word was extended to the decline of anything: Aeschylus speaks of a pollution that has no old age, that is, never fades, and Empedocles called evening the old age of the day, a metaphor Aristotle cites.^[4][7]

Concretely it named the cast slough of a snake, a sense found in Aristotle and glossed by Hesychius, and contemptuously an old man's wrinkled hide, as in Aristophanes.^[6][4][8] The Gospel of Luke speaks of a woman conceiving in her old age.^[9]

Modern Greek Γήρας (gíras) in Modern Greek is a learned word taken from the ancient one.^[10][11]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for old age.^[12][6]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod personifies Old Age in the Theogony.^[4]
• 5th century BC – Empedocles calls evening the old age of the day.^[4]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it for the cast skin of a snake.^[6][4]
• 1st century AD – The Gospel of Luke uses it of a woman who conceived in old age.^[9]
• Modern Greek – γήρας (gíras) is a learned word for old age.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. Old age, the period or condition of being old.^[6][7]
2. (figurative) Decline or fading of anything.^[4]
3. (personified) Old Age as a divine figure.^[4]
4. The cast skin or slough of a snake or crab.^[6][8]
5. (contemptuous) An old man's wrinkled hide.^[4]

Word family

• γηράσκω (gēráskō)
• γηραιός (gēraiós)
• γηραλέος (gēraléos)

Related words

• γέρας (géras)
• γέρων (gérōn)
• γραῦς (graûs)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. ^ Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
5. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
6. ^ a b c d e f Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b 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. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux