δίσκος

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /dís.kos/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈðis.kos/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈðis.kos/^[1]

Forms

δίσκος (dískos) m (genitive δίσκου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

The traditional explanation derives it from δικεῖν (dikeîn, “to throw”) with a suffix -σκος (-skos), from *δίκσκος (*díkskos).^[2][3][4] Frisk noted that the suffix is rare in nouns and supposed a lost present in -σκω (-skō);^[2] the Πάπυρος dictionary likewise posits a present *δίσκω (*dískō), like βόσκω (bóskō).^[5]

Beekes, following Furnée, finds the traditional derivation hardly possible for that reason and starts instead from a stem δισκ- (disk-), a variant of δικεῖν (dikeîn);^[6][1] he takes the root to be Pre-Greek, from Pre-Greek.^[6][1] A proposed Semitic origin, from Akkadian diškû (“a kind of table”), is rejected by Rosół.^[7]

Pindar already seems to connect the discus with δικεῖν (dikeîn), using the rare verb for throwing a stone.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it for the discus thrown in games: in the Iliad men amuse themselves with discuses (2.774), and the length of a discus throw is a measure of distance (23.431).^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Pindar mentions stone discuses, and a fragment of Hesiod has Phoebus killing someone with “the pitiless discus”.^[3][4] Later it named anything disc-shaped: a dish or salver (papyri and the Greek Anthology), a round mirror, the disk of the sun (Alexander of Aphrodisias), a gong (Sextus Empiricus, Plutarch), a reliquary (Procopius), and the marigold.^[4][9][1]

Medieval Greek kept the word.^[10] In Modern Greek δίσκος is any disc, the discus of athletics, a tray, a gramophone record and a computer disk; most of these are learned senses taken from French disque (itself from Latin discus, from δίσκος) and English disk.^[11]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for the discus.^[3][4]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar mentions stone discuses.^[4][3]
• 2nd–3rd century AD – Papyri use it for a salver.^[4]
• 3rd century AD – Alexander of Aphrodisias uses it for the sun's disk.^[4][3]
• 6th century AD – Procopius uses it for a reliquary.^[4][3]
• Modern Greek – δίσκος is a disc, a tray and a record.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A discus, quoit.^[4][9]
2. A dish, trencher, salver.^[4]
3. A round mirror.^[4]
4. The disk of the sun.^[4]
5. A gong.^[4][9]
6. (Byzantine) A reliquary.^[4]
7. The marigold, Calendula arvensis.^[4]

Word family

• δισκέω (diskéō)
• δίσκημα (dískēma)
• δίσκουρα (dískoura)
• δισκοφόρος (diskophóros)

Related words

• Latin discus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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 j k l m n o p Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
6. ^ a b 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
7. ^ Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
8. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
9. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
10. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki