Etymologically
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δέμω

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /dé.mɔː/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈðe.mo/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈðe.mo/[1]

Forms

δέμω (démō) [1] Mycenaean de-me-o-te, a future participle “who will build”, at Pylos.[2][3] Doric perfect δέδμᾱται, which Beekes considers a hyperdorism.[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *démō, from Proto-Indo-European *demh₁- (“to build”), an extension of *dem-.[1][5] The Mycenaean form Mycenaean Greek de-me-o-te supports the laryngeal *h₁, against the LIV's *demh₂-, which rests on Doric forms with ᾱ such as νεόδματος (neódmatos) that Beekes takes as hyperdorisms.[5][6]

The same present is found in Germanic, Old High German zeman and Old Saxon teman “to befit”, and the LIV adds Hieroglyphic Luwian tamata (“built”).[5][6] Chantraine notes that outside Greek the root is Germanic only, where it was used of building in wood and came to mean “to be fitting”.[7] Related Greek words are δόμος (dómos, “house”), δέμας (démas, “bodily frame”) and δεσπότης (despótēs).[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is Mycenaean: Pylos tablets list men who are to build, Mycenaean Greek de-me-o-te, and builders of walls, Mycenaean Greek to-ko-do-mo.[2][3] In Homer it means to build walls, towers, houses and chambers; the perfect passive is used of a building that stands in a place.[4][8][3]

Semantic evolution

The verb was epic and poetic; its present is rare, and the aorist ἔδειμα and the perfect passive δέδμημαι are the usual forms.[4] The middle means to have something built for oneself, a house or a shrine.[8] Herodotus uses it of building a road and the wall of a town, the Hymn to Hermes of laying out a vineyard.[4][3]

Timeline

  • 1400–1200 BC – Mycenaean tablets from Pylos record Mycenaean Greek de-me-o-te.[2][3]
  • Homer – The Iliad uses it of building walls and towers.[4][3]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of building a road.[4][3]
  • 3rd century BC – Apollonius of Rhodes uses it of houses and shrines.[3][8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To build or construct a wall, a house, a shrine, a road.[4][8]
  2. In the middle, to have something built for oneself.[8][4]
  3. To lay out or prepare, such as a vineyard.[4][8]

Word family

  • δόμος (dómos)
  • οἰκοδόμος (oikodómos)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Микенско-русский словарь (Mycenaean–Russian dictionary)
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press