Etymologically
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δόρυ

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /dó.ry/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈðo.ry/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈðo.ry/[1]

Forms

δόρῠ (dóru) n (genitive δόρᾰτος); third declension[1] Mycenaean Greek do-wa spear shafts, from a stem with /w/ (Homeric plural δοῦρα).[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *dóru,[1] inherited from Proto-Indo-European *dóru (“tree, wood”), genitive *dreus.[4][1] The Ionic and epic stem δουρ- (dour-) (from *δορϝ- (*dorw-)) keeps a trace of the /w/ that the Mycenaean form still writes.[2][5]

Cognate with Sanskrit दारु (dā́ru, “wood”), Avestan dāuru (“wood”), Hittite tāru (“wood”), Tocharian B or (“wood”) and Old English trēow (“tree”).[4][1] Beside this old neuter, which first meant only “wood”, there was a feminine word for “tree, oak”, δρῦς (drûs), and δένδρεον (déndreon) belongs to the same root.[4][3]

Ancient grammarians derived it from the word for “oak”, from δέρω (dérō, “to flay”), because trees are stripped of their bark, or from θρώσκω (thrṓskō, “to leap”), as the thing that springs up from the earth.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The plural Mycenaean Greek do-wa appears on a Knossos tablet in the sense “shafts of spears”.[2] In Homer it is a felled tree trunk, a log or beam, a ship's timber, the shaft of a spear and the spear itself.[7][8] In the Odyssey it can also be a living tree.[7][5]

Semantic evolution

Chantraine traces the meanings from “tree, trunk” to “wood, plank” and then to “spear shaft” and “spear”; the senses of timber are poetic and unknown to prose.[5] In epic it stands beside the older word for the spear, ἔγχος (énkhos), and it alone has the dual δοῦρε, used for the newer practice of carrying two spears.[5] From Ionic and Attic down to Polybius it is the ordinary name of the hoplite's spear.[5]

The tragedians use it for a ship and, by metonymy, for armed force and war, and phrases such as “on the spear side” meant to the right, where the spear was held.[7][9] It is common in compounds and personal names, such as δορυφόρος (doruphóros) “spear-bearer, bodyguard”.[5] In the Septuagint it is a spear.[10][11] Modern Greek keeps δόρυ (dóri) as a learned word for the ancient and medieval spear.[12][13]

Timeline

  • Mycenaean – A Knossos tablet records Mycenaean Greek do-wa, spear shafts.[2][3]
  • Homer – The Iliad uses it for tree trunks, beams and the spear.[8][7]
  • 7th–6th century BC – Anacreon uses it for a pillory.[7][3]
  • 5th century BC – The tragedians use it for a ship and for armed might.[7][3]
  • 2nd century BC – Polybius sets the spear, meaning war, against the herald's staff, meaning peace.[7][3]
  • Modern Greek – δόρυ (dóri) is a learned word for the long spear of antiquity and the Middle Ages.[12]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A felled tree, trunk or log.[7][9]
  2. (Odyssey) A living tree.[7]
  3. A piece of sawn timber, a beam or plank, as used for buildings, carts and ships.[7][5]
  4. (poetic) A ship or boat.[7][5]
  5. The shaft of a spear.[7][9]
  6. A spear, the hoplite's thrusting spear.[7][5]
  7. (figurative) Armed force, warfare.[7][9]

Word family

  • δουρικλυτός (douriklutós)
  • δορατισμός (doratismós)
  • δορυφόρος (doruphóros)
  • δορυσθενής (dorusthenḗs)
  • δορυφόρος (doruphóros)
  • δρῦς (drûs)
  • δένδρεον (déndreon)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Микенско-русский словарь (Mycenaean–Russian dictionary)
  3. ^ a b c d e f Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  8. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  9. ^ a b c d Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
  11. ^ 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
  12. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  13. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας