δῶρον
Pronunciation
- 5th-century BC Attic: /dɔ̂ː.ron/[1]
- 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈðo.ron/[1]
- 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈðo.ron/[1]
Forms
δῶρον (dôron) n (genitive δώρου); second declension[1] Mycenaean Greek do-ra gifts.[1][2]
Etymology
It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *dṓron,[1] inherited from Proto-Indo-European *déh₃rom (“gift”), from the root *deh₃- (“to give”) of δίδωμι (dídōmi).[3][1][4] Beekes calls it an old word, identical with Old Armenian տուր (tur, “gift”) and Old Church Slavonic даръ (darŭ, “gift”).[3][5] The same root takes a suffix -no- in Latin dōnum and Sanskrit दान (dā́na).[3]
Earliest recorded meaning
Mycenaean tablets have the plural Mycenaean Greek do-ra, “gifts”.[1][5] In Homer it is a gift or present, a reward, the ransom for a corpse, and an offering to a god, such as the robe brought to Athena.[6][7]
Semantic evolution
Homer also speaks of the gifts of a god: the “gifts of Aphrodite” are personal charms, and sleep is a gift.[7][8] Herodotus calls the land of Egypt “the gift of the river”.[7] In the Attic orators δῶρα are mostly bribes, and a “charge of gifts” was an indictment for taking them.[7][8][9]
In the Septuagint and the New Testament it is a gift, and above all a sacrificial offering.[7][10] The medieval Byzantine Greek δώρο (dóro) gave the ordinary Modern Greek word for a gift, δώρο (dóro).[11][12][2]
Timeline
- Mycenaean – Tablets record Mycenaean Greek do-ra, gifts.[1][5]
- Homer – The Iliad uses it for gifts, rewards and offerings.[6][7]
- 5th century BC – Herodotus calls Egypt the gift of the Nile.[7][5]
- 4th century BC – Demosthenes and Aeschines use it of bribes.[7][5]
- 1st century AD – The Gospel of Mark uses it for an offering to God.[7][10]
- Modern Greek – δώρο (dóro) is the usual word for a present.[11]
Meanings
Noun
- A gift, present, reward.[8][7]
- A votive gift, an offering to a god.[8][7]
- A gift or blessing bestowed by a god or by nature.[8][9]
- (plural) Tribute.[7][9]
- (plural) A bribe.[8][7]
Word family
- ζείδωρος (zeídōros)
- δωρεά (dōreā́)
Related words
Usage notes
A separate δῶρον in Nicander and at Miletus means “the breadth of the hand”, a measure.[3][7] Its origin is unknown: it has been compared with Albanian dorë (“hand”), but Beekes rejects the link.[3][5]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
- ^ 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
- ^ Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
- ^ a b c d e f Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
- ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- ^ a b c Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Βασικό Λεξικό της Αρχαίας Ελληνικής, Portal for the Greek Language, https://www.greek-language.gr
- ^ a b 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
- ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
- ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr