εὐθύς

Forms

εὐθῠ́ς (euthús) m (feminine εὐθεῖᾰ, neuter εὐθῠ́); first/third declension^[1]

Etymology

The word has no counterparts outside Greek.^[2][3][4] Beekes and Chantraine think it replaced the Homeric and Ionic word for “straight”, and in Chantraine's view it is from Ancient Greek ἰθύς (ithús), perhaps altered under the influence of εὖ (eû, “well”), as if “well straight”.^[2][4] Schwyzer, followed by Frisk, explained it as a blend of the Ionic word and εἶθαρ (eîthar, “at once”), with the vowels ⟨ει⟩ … ⟨υ⟩ assimilated to ⟨ευ⟩ … ⟨υ⟩.^[3][2][4] Babiniotis also derives it from the Ionic word, through a popular link with the adverb “well”.^[5]

Wiktionary takes the opposite view: it traces εὐθύς to Proto-Indo-European *Hyewdʰ-dʰ-ú-s, from a root meaning “to become straight”, and follows Willi in explaining the Ionic word as a secondary variant of εὐθύς.^[1] Frisk finds εὐρύς (eurús, “wide”) too far in meaning to be related.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The form εὐθύς is not Homeric: Homer and Herodotus always have ἰθύς.^[6] The CGL lists the adverb, “straightaway”, in a fragment of Hesiod and in Tyrtaeus (7th century BC), and the adjective, of a straight and honest person, in Tyrtaeus and Theognis.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

In the Classical language the adjective is used of straight lines and direct roads, canals and voyages, as against crooked or bent things, as in Plato and Aristotle.^[6][7] Of people and speech it means straightforward, frank and honest.^[7] The neuter and masculine forms became an adverb of place, “straight towards”, and above all of time, “at once”, beside εὐθέως (euthéōs).^[2][7][9]

The Septuagint and the Gospels take up “make his paths straight” from Isaiah, and the Acts of the Apostles name a street “Straight”.^[9] The adverb, often “immediately”, is a mark of Mark's Gospel.^[9] Medieval Greek kept both the adjective and the adverb.^[10] In Modern Greek ευθύς (efthýs) is a learned form taken from Ancient Greek, both as an adjective “straight, honest” and as an adverb.^[11]

Timeline

• Before the 6th century BC – A fragment of Hesiod has the adverb “straightaway”.^[7][8]
• 7th century BC – Tyrtaeus uses the word of an upright person and as an adverb “straightaway”.^[7][8]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it of a straight voyage and a straight-flying javelin.^[6][7][8]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides uses it of straight roads and often as an adverb of time.^[6][7][8]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato contrasts the straight with the crooked.^[6][7][8]
• 1st century AD – The Gospels quote “make his paths straight”, and Mark uses the adverb again and again.^[9]
• Modern Greek – It survives as the learned ευθύς (efthýs).^[11][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Straight, as opposed to crooked or bent.^[6][7]
2. Of a road, canal or voyage: direct, going straight ahead.^[6][7]
3. Of a person, mind or speech: straightforward, frank, honest.^[7][9]

Adverb

1. Of place: straight to, directly towards, with a genitive or a prepositional phrase.^[7][6]
2. Of time: at once, immediately, straightaway.^[7][9]
3. For instance.^[7]

Word family

• εὐθύτης (euthútēs)
• εὐθέως (euthéōs)

Related words

• ἰθύς (ithús)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b c 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 Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
9. ^ a b c d e f 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
10. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki