εἴωθα

Forms

εἴωθᾰ (eíōtha) ^[1] Perfect used as a present; pluperfect εἰώθειν (eiṓthein), used as an imperfect; participle εἰωθώς (eiōthṓs).^[2][3] Epic and Ionic ἔωθα (éōtha), pluperfect ἐώθεα (eṓthea), participle ἐωθώς (eōthṓs).^[2][4] Hesychius records a Doric third person plural ἐθώκατι (ethṓkati) and a Lesbian εὐέθωκεν (euéthōken).^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *séswōtʰa, an old intransitive perfect of state that serves as a present, “I am accustomed”.^[5][1][4] It goes back to Proto-Indo-European *swe-dʰh₁-, a fusion of the reflexive *swé (“self”) and *dʰeh₁- (“to put, place”), so that the original sense was “to make one's own”.^[5][1] The long /ō/ of the perfect is unexplained in Beekes's view; it recurs in the old perfect γέγωνα (gégōna, “I can be heard”), and the noun ἦθος (êthos) has a long vowel beside ἔθος (éthos, “custom”).^[5] Chantraine takes it as the long /o/-grade expected in a perfect.^[4]

No cognate verb is known outside Greek, but the same compound underlies nouns such as Latin sodālis (“member of a fraternity”) and Sanskrit स्वधा (svadhā́, “custom, peculiarity”).^[5] Chantraine and the DGE also compare suēscō (“to become accustomed”).^[4][6]

Grammars list it under a present ἔθω (éthō), but that present is doubtful: Homer has only the participle ἔθων (éthōn), whose meaning was already disputed in antiquity.^[4][2][5] The transitive verb that goes with it is the denominative ἐθίζω (ethízō, “to accustom”), formed from the noun.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Homer on, already with an infinitive, “to be accustomed to do something”, and as a participle meaning “accustomed”, of a charioteer.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Ionic and Attic the participle became an adjective, “customary, usual”, of people and things, and its neuter was used as a noun for “what is usual, custom”.^[2][3] Thucydides speaks of what happens “contrary to custom”.^[2][3] Herodotus has the Ionic forms without the first syllable, and Aristophanes and Plutarch use the verb impersonally, “as is the custom”.^[2][3]

The phrase “according to custom” occurs in a papyrus of 258 BC, and the New Testament uses the verb for keeping a custom or tradition: Jesus goes to the synagogue on the sabbath “according to his custom”, and Paul argues in it “as was his custom”.^[7]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it with an infinitive and as a participle meaning “accustomed”.^[2][3]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus writes the Ionic forms, and Thucydides uses the neuter participle for what is customary.^[2][3]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it impersonally, “as is the custom”.^[2]
• 3rd century BC – A papyrus of 258 BC has the phrase “according to custom”.^[7]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for keeping a custom.^[7]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch writes “as was customary” with the pluperfect.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be accustomed or wont to do something, with an infinitive.^[2][3][7]
2. (impersonal) It is customary, sometimes with a dative of the person and an infinitive.^[2][3]
3. (participle) Of people, accustomed; of things, customary, usual.^[2][3]
4. (neuter participle as a noun) What is usual, custom; with a preposition, “according to custom” or “contrary to custom”.^[2][3][7]

Related words

• ἔθος (éthos)
• ἦθος (êthos)
• ἐθίζω (ethízō)
• ἔθω (éthō)
• Latin sodālis
• Latin suēscō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f 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 g 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
6. ^ Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
7. ^ a b c d e 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