ζάω

Forms

ζάω (záō), the dictionary form of Attic ζῶ (zô) (2nd and 3rd singular ζῇς, ζῇ; infinitive ζῆν; imperfect ἔζων; future ζήσω or ζήσομαι; aorist ἔζησα; perfect ἔζηκα); Epic, Ionic and lyric ζώω (zṓō).^[2][3] ζάω, the uncontracted form set up for ζῶ, occurs only in the grammarians and the Etymologicum Magnum.^[2][4] Homer has only the uncontracted present, infinitive ζωέμεν(αι); Hesiod has the iterative imperfect ζώεσκον, Herodotus the rare aorist ἔζωσα, and Semonides the infinitive ζόειν.^[2][3][5] Cretan δώω (dṓō) in the Gortyn law code.^[2][6] In Attic the aorist and perfect are usually supplied by βιόω (bióō) (ἐβίων, βεβίωκα); ἔζησα and ἔζηκα are Hippocratic, Aristotelian and later.^[2][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *ďṓwō, from earlier *gʷyṓwō,^[1] from the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *gʷyeh₃- (“to live”).^[4][7][8] Beekes and Chantraine derive both stems from that root: the Homeric stem ζω- (zō-) from *gʷyō- and the Attic ζη- (zē-) from *gʷyē-, while βίος (bíos, “life”) and ἐβίων (ebíōn, “I lived”) show the same root with a different syllabification.^[5][4] Beekes takes the Attic contracted forms ζῶ (zô), ζῇς (zêis) and ἔζησα (ézēsa) to be innovations, since Homer has only the uncontracted ζώω (zṓō).^[4] The Greek ⟨ζ⟩ comes from the cluster /gʷy/, as the Cretan spelling with ⟨δ⟩ also shows.^[1][6]

LIV classes the Greek verb with the presents built on a stem with *-u-, such as Sanskrit जीवति (jī́vati, “lives”) and Latin vīvō (“I live”).^[7][8] The verb is a doublet of βιόω (bióō), which comes from the same root.^[1]

The grammarians who wrote ζάω took it for the full form behind the contracted present, but Wiktionary and Beekes treat it as their own construction.^[1][4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses only the uncontracted ζώω (zṓō), for being alive, as in the Iliad's “while I live and look upon the earth” (Il. 1.88), and for passing one's life in a certain way, as the gods do who “live at ease”.^[9][2] The plural participle means “the living”, that is, men.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Greek the verb is used of men and animals and, from Aristotle on, of plants too.^[2][3] The articular infinitive τὸ ζῆν serves as a noun for “life”, from Aeschylus and Plato on.^[2][3][5] With an adverb or a cognate accusative it means to lead a life of a certain kind (“to live well”, “to live a hard life”), and with ἀπό or ἐκ and the genitive it means to make a living from something, from Theognis and Herodotus on.^[2][3] Figuratively, Sophocles speaks of oracles and laws that “live”, that is, are in force.^[3][2] Greek distinguished the noun ζωή (zōḗ), life as the state of being alive, from βίος (bíos), the span and manner of a life.^[5]

The Septuagint has the acclamation “long live the king”, ζήτω ὁ βασιλεύς, and the oath “as the Lord lives”.^[2] In the New Testament the verb is used of physical life, of the new life of the believer and of God, “the living God”; the participle can also mean “life-giving”, as in “living water”.^[10][11]

Medieval vernacular Greek kept the verb, also in the form ζιω, with wishes such as “may you live”.^[12] It survives as ζω (zo), the ordinary word for “to live”, and the imperative ζήτω is the cheer “long live!”.^[13][1]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use the uncontracted ζώω for being alive and for living in a certain way.^[9][2]
• 6th century BC – Theognis uses it with ἀπό for living on something.^[2][3][14]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses the infinitive τὸ ζῆν for life itself, and Sophocles has the Attic forms.^[2][3][14]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle extends the verb to plants and has the perfect ἔζηκα.^[2][3][14]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – The Septuagint uses the acclamation “long live the king”.^[2]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament speaks of “the living God” and of “living water”.^[10][11]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular Greek has ζω (zo) and ζιω (zio) “to be alive”.^[12]
• Modern Greek – ζω (zo) is the ordinary verb for “to live”.^[13][15]

Meanings

Verb

1. To live, to be alive, said of humans, beasts and later also plants; the participle as a noun, “the living”.^[2][3][9]
2. (articular infinitive) τὸ ζῆν, life; later also a living, one's livelihood.^[2][3]
3. To pass one's life in a certain way, with an adverb, a participle or a cognate accusative: to live at ease, to live as a slave, to live a hard life.^[2][3][9]
4. To make a living, to live on something, with ἀπό or ἐκ and the genitive.^[2][3]
5. (figurative) Of oracles and laws, to be in force; of good fortune, to last.^[3][2]
6. To live in the full sense, to have a life worth the name.^[3]
7. (Septuagint) In acclamations and oaths: “long live the king” and “as the Lord lives”.^[2]
8. (New Testament) To live the life of the spirit; of God, “the living God”; the participle also “life-giving”, as in “living water”.^[10][11]

Word family

• ζωή (zōḗ)
• ζωός (zōós)
• ζῷον (zôion)
• ζῴδιον (zōídion)
• ζωτικός (zōtikós)
• ζωγράφος (zōgráphos)
• ἀναζάω (anazáō)
• διαζάω (diazáō)
• ἐπιζάω (epizáō)

Related words

• βίος (bíos)
• βιόω (bióō)
• Latin vivo
• Sanskrit जीवति (jī́vati)

Usage notes

In Attic prose the present system of ζῶ was completed by the aorist and perfect of βιόω (bióō) rather than by ἔζησα and ἔζηκα, which are Ionic and later.^[2][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x 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 l m n o Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
7. ^ a b Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
8. ^ a b Heggarty, Paul, et al. (2023), Indo-European Cognate Relationships (IE-CoR), Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, https://iecor.clld.org
9. ^ a b c d e Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
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 c United Bible Societies (2023), UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (revised Louw–Nida semantic domains), open-licence ed.
12. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
13. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
14. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
15. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας