διδάσκω

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /di.dás.kɔː/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /ðiˈðas.ko/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /ðiˈðas.ko/^[1]

Forms

δῐδᾰ́σκω (didáskō) ^[1]

Etymology

It is a reduplicated present from Ancient Greek ἐδάην (edáēn, “learned”) + -σκω (-skō), with causative meaning (“make learn”).^[2][3][1] Because the root had become obscure, the reduplication and in part the suffix spread to the other tenses and to the derivatives, as Debrunner showed.^[2][3][4] The root is Proto-Indo-European *dens- (“to become skilful”).^[2][5][1] Compare Sanskrit दीक्षयति (dīkṣáyati, “to initiate, teach”).^[1]

Older attempts to connect Latin doceō (“to teach”) through *di-dk-sk- are obsolete after Debrunner, according to Chantraine, but the DGE notes that a Mycenaean form, Mycenaean Greek de-di-ku-ja, read as a perfect participle “trained”, would favour that connection.^[4][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Homer on, meaning to teach a person or a skill: the Iliad already has it with a person and with a skill as object.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

The verb takes the person taught, the thing taught, or both in the accusative, or an infinitive (“teach how to do”).^[9][8] The middle could mean to have someone taught, in Plato and Xenophon.^[9][8] Herodotus and Aristophanes use it of a poet who “teaches”, that is produces, a dithyramb or a play.^[8] In the New Testament it is constantly used of Jesus' teaching and of the Christian teachers, and also simply of instructing someone what to do.^[10]

Modern Greek διδάσκω (didásko) is a learned word in Modern Greek, from the ancient verb.^[11][12]

Timeline

• Mycenaean (possibly) – A Knossos tablet has Mycenaean Greek de-di-ku-ja, which may be a perfect participle of this verb.^[7][6]
• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for teaching a skill.^[8][9]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Theogony uses it.^[8][6]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato and Xenophon use the middle of having someone taught.^[9][6]
• 1st century AD – The Gospels use it of Jesus' teaching.^[10]
• Modern Greek – It is used as a learned word.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To teach, instruct a person, or teach a thing; with two accusatives, to teach someone something.^[8][9]
2. To teach how to do something, with an infinitive.^[9]
3. (middle) To have someone taught.^[9][8]
4. (theatre) Of a poet, to produce a dithyramb or a play.^[8]
5. (New Testament) To tell someone what to do.^[10]

Word family

• διδάσκαλος (didáskalos)
• διδασκαλία (didaskalía)
• διδασκαλεῖον (didaskaleîon)
• διδαχή (didakhḗ)
• δίδαγμα (dídagma)
• διδακτός (didaktós)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b 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. ^ Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
6. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
7. ^ a b Микенско-русский словарь (Mycenaean–Russian dictionary)
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
10. ^ a b c 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
11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
12. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας