Etymologically
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ζυγόν

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /zdy.ɡón/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /zyˈɣon/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /zyˈɣon/[1]

Forms

ζῠγόν (zugón) n (genitive ζῠγοῦ); second declension[1] In Hellenistic Greek mostly masculine ζυγός (zugós), rarely earlier;[2][3][4] Aeolic ζύγος (zúgos);[2][3][4] Epic ablative ζυγόφι(ν).[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *dzugón, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *yugóm (“yoke”), the old name of the device, kept in most Indo-European languages.[1][2] The initial ζ- continues plain /y/;[2] Beekes thinks a laryngeal before it, which Rix suggested, unlikely.[2]

Cognate with Hittite iugan, Sanskrit युग (yugá), Latin iugum and Gothic 𐌾𐌿𐌺 (juk).[2][5] The root noun appears in ἄζυξ (ázux, “unpaired”) and Latin coniux (“spouse”); see also ζεύγνυμι (zeúgnūmi) and ζεῦγος (zeûgos).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is the yoke of draught animals, the rowers' benches of a ship (in the plural) and the crossbar joining the arms of a lyre.[4][6]

Semantic evolution

From the bar joining a pair of animals the word spread to many crossbars: the beam of a pair of scales and so the balance itself (Aeschylus, Plato), the yard-arm (Pindar), the cross-strap of a sandal (Aristophanes), and a rank of soldiers side by side, as opposed to a file (Thucydides, Polybius).[3][6] Figuratively it is the yoke of slavery or rule (the Homeric Hymns, Theognis, Herodotus, tragedy), of marriage (Euripides), of friendship (Theocritus), and in the New Testament the yoke of Jesus' teaching.[3] Astronomers used it for the constellation Libra.[6]

Medieval Greek kept the yoke of the plough and the balance.[7] Modern Greek ζυγός (zygós) is the balance and the yoke and, as an adjective, “even” of numbers, from the sense “pair”.[8][9]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad uses it for the yoke of horses and the crossbar of a lyre; the Odyssey for rowers' benches.[4][6]
  • 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it of the beam of a balance and of the bridge that yoked the Hellespont.[3][6][10]
  • 5th century BC – Thucydides uses it of a rank of soldiers.[6][3][10]
  • 2nd century BC – Hipparchus uses it for the constellation Libra.[6][10]
  • 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it of the yoke of Jesus' teaching.[3][11]
  • Modern Greek – Modern Greek ζυγός (zygós) means “balance, scales” and “yoke”.[8][7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A yoke joining a pair of draught animals.[3][4]
  2. (figurative) A yoke of slavery or rule, of necessity, of marriage or friendship.[3]
  3. A cross-bench of a ship, a rower's thwart; the helmsman's bench.[3][4]
  4. The crossbar joining the arms of a lyre.[3][4]
  5. The beam of a balance; the scales.[3][6]
  6. A yard-arm; the cross-strap of a sandal.[3]
  7. A pair of persons.[3]
  8. (military) A rank of soldiers side by side.[3][6]
  9. (astronomy) The constellation Libra.[6]

Word family

  • σύζυγος (súzugos)
  • διαζύγιον (diazúgion)
  • ζυγόω (zugóō)
  • ζύγαινα (zúgaina)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 d e f g h i j k l m n o p Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  5. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  9. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  10. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  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