Etymologically
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γῦρος

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /ɡŷː.ros/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈʝy.ros/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈʝy.ros/[1]

Forms

γῦρος (gûros) m (genitive γῡ́ρου); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is a noun from Ancient Greek γυρός (gurós, “round, curved”), with the accent moved back.[2][3][4] The adjective occurs once in Homer, of a man “round in the shoulders”.[3][5]

Beekes finds a link with Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to bend”) quite possible, a root also proposed for γύης (gúēs) and γύαλον (gúalon, “hollow”).[3][1][2] Chantraine notes that the long ⟨ῡ⟩ does not fit that root, perhaps a popular variation.[2] Frisk and Wiktionary compare Old Armenian կոր (kor, “curved”), Lithuanian gur̃nas (“hip, ankle”) and Norwegian Nynorsk kaure (“curly lock of hair”).[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Theophrastus uses it of a round trench dug about a tree, and Menander perhaps of a bangle.[5][4]

Semantic evolution

Polybius uses it of a circle, and in the Septuagint God walks the circle of the heaven and sits above the circle of the earth.[5][6][7] Plutarch tells of a circle drawn round a man with a stick, and in the Acts of John the disciples form a ring holding hands.[6]

It was borrowed as Latin gyrus, which Roman poets use of a horse's turn on the track, the orbit of a star and the coils of a snake.[8][6][1] In medieval vernacular Greek Modern Greek γύρος (gýros) meant a circle or circumference, a hem and a circular movement, and it lives on in Modern Greek, meaning a round, tour or turn.[9][10][11]

Timeline

  • 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus uses it of a trench dug round a tree.[5][6]
  • 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it of a circle.[5][7][6]
  • 3rd–2nd century BC – The Septuagint speaks of the circle of the heaven and of the earth.[5][6]
  • 1st century BC – Latin poets use the borrowed gyrus for a turn or circuit.[6][8]
  • Medieval Greek – Vernacular texts use γύρος for a circle, circumference and circuit.[9]
  • Modern Greek – γύρος means a round, a tour or a turn.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A ring, circle.[5][7]
  2. A ring of people.[6]
  3. A trench dug round a tree.[5]
  4. Perhaps a bangle.[5]
  • γυρός (gurós)
  • γυρόω (guróō)
  • γυρῖνος (gurînos)
  • Latin gyrus
  • Modern Greek γύρος (gýros)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  7. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  8. ^ a b Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  9. ^ a b 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
  11. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας