Etymologically
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δαρθάνω

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /dar.tʰá.nɔː/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ðarˈθa.no/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ðarˈθa.no/[1]

Forms

δᾰρθᾰ́νω (darthánō) [1]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Proto-Indo-European *der- (“to sleep”), in the zero grade, with a suffix -θ- (-th-).[2][3][4] Chantraine takes the -θ- as a morpheme marking a state reached, following Benveniste.[4] With other suffixes the root gives Sanskrit द्राति (drā́ti, “sleeps”), Latin dormiō (“to sleep”) and Old Church Slavonic дрѣмати (drěmati, “to doze”).[2][4][5] Wiktionary sets it under Proto-Indo-European *drem- (“to sleep”) instead.[1]

Ancient writers guessed at its origin: Orion derived it from δράω (dráō, “to do”), by contrast, since sleepers do nothing, and the Suda explains καταδαρθάνειν (katadarthánein) as sleeping on hides (δέρμα (dérma)).[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The only Homeric form is the aorist ἔδραθε: in the Odyssey someone sleeps in the porch of a house (20.143).[5][7]

Semantic evolution

The simple verb is very rare: its present is found only in Hierocles.[4][5] It was used mainly in the aorist and with prefixes, while εὕδω (heúdō) and καθεύδω (katheúdō) served as the present.[8][4] Homer has παραδαρθάνω (paradarthánō), “to sleep beside”, and the usual Attic verb was καταδαρθάνω (katadarthánō), “to fall asleep” (Plato), with the aorist -δαρθεῖν for Homeric -δραθεῖν and the perfect δεδάρθηκα; the prefix marks that the action is complete, as in καθεύδω.[4][8]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Odyssey has the aorist ἔδραθε.[5][7]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses the compound καταδαρθάνω, “to fall asleep”.[4][3]
  • 3rd century AD – Quintus of Smyrna uses the aorist ἔδραθον.[9][3]
  • 5th century AD – Hierocles has the present of the simple verb.[5][4][3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To sleep, fall asleep.[5][10][4]

Word family

  • καταδαρθάνω (katadarthánō)
  • παραδαρθάνω (paradarthánō)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b c d 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 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
  5. ^ a b c d e f Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
  7. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  8. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  9. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  10. ^ Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press