ζώνη

Forms

ζώνη (zṓnē) f (genitive ζώνης); first declension^[1] Dialectal ζώνα (zṓnā).^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *yoh₃snéh₂ (“girdle”),^[1][3] a noun formed with the suffix *-neh₂ from the root *yeh₃s- (“to gird”).^[1][3] Beekes writes the noun *yeh₃s-neh₂.^[4] The same root gives the verb ζώννυμι (zṓnnumi, “to gird”), whose nasal present is a recent Greek formation built on the aorist stem, and the nouns ζῶμα (zôma) and ζωστήρ (zōstḗr).^[4][5]

Cognate with Old Church Slavonic поꙗсъ (pojasŭ, “girdle”).^[4][3][1] Sanskrit रास्ना (rā́snā, “girdle”) may belong here too, if its r- was taken over from रशना (raśanā́, “cord”).^[4][5] Also cognate with Lithuanian júosti (“to gird”) and Lithuanian juosmuõ (“girdle”).^[4][3]

Ancient grammarians derived it from ζάω (záō, “to live”), because the vital organs lie in the waist that the belt encircles, or from δέω (déō, “to bind”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is a woman's or a goddess's girdle: a goddess ties one on in the Iliad, and in the Odyssey a bridegroom loosens a maiden's girdle.^[7][8] The Iliad also uses it for the waist of a man, when a man is likened to Ares in his waist.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

The woman's girdle stood for her body: to loose the maiden girdle meant to take a bride, a woman loosed hers in childbirth, and to carry a child “under the girdle” was to be pregnant.^[8][2] Men wore a belt too, which held a weapon or money.^[8][2][9] Herodotus has marching soldiers loosen their belts to rest.^[8][2][9] Plato and Xenophon tell of lands that the Persian king gave his queen “for her girdle”, to pay for her dress and ornaments.^[8][2]

From the Hellenistic period on it was anything that runs round like a belt: one of the zones into which the Stoics and Strabo divided the earth, torrid or temperate, the planetary spheres, a frieze in architecture, the stripes of a fish, and, after Latin zona, the disease shingles.^[8] In the New Testament it is the leather belt of John the Baptist and the belt in which a traveller carried money.^[9] In Byzantine Greek the belt of rank of officials and soldiers, Latin cingulum, made “those under the belt” a name for soldiers.^[8][10]

Modern Greek ζώνη (zóni) is a belt, including a seat belt, and a zone; its everyday diminutive ζωνάρι (zonári) comes from Hellenistic ζωνάριον (zōnárion).^[11][12] The word passed through Latin zona into many languages.^[13][12] The English word zone meant a belt in the late 14th century before its geographical sense.^[13][14][12] It was borrowed into Coptic ⲍⲱⲛⲏ (zōnē).^[15]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for a goddess's girdle and for a man's waist.^[7][8]
• 7th century BC – The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite uses “under the girdle” for conceiving a child.^[8][2]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it for the girdle laid aside in childbirth, and Aeschylus for pregnancy.^[8][2]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for the belt that soldiers loosen to rest.^[8]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato and Xenophon tell of lands given to the Persian queen for her girdle.^[8][2]
• 1st century BC to 1st century AD – Strabo uses it for the torrid and temperate zones of the earth.^[8]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for a man's belt, also as a purse.^[9]
• 6th century AD – Laws and papyri call soldiers “those under the belt”.^[8]
• Late 14th century – English borrows zone through Latin in the sense “belt”.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A girdle worn by women just above the hips.^[8][2]
2. (figurative) The maiden girdle, standing for virginity, marriage or childbirth.^[8][2]
3. A man's belt, holding a weapon or used as a purse.^[8][2][9]
4. The waist, where the girdle is worn.^[7][8][2]
5. (Byzantine) The belt of rank of officials and soldiers; office, rank.^[8][10]
6. Anything that encircles like a belt.^[8]
7. (geography) One of the zones of the earth.^[8]
8. (astronomy) One of the planetary spheres.^[8]
9. (architecture) A frieze.^[8]
10. (medicine) Shingles.^[8]
11. A stripe on a fish.^[8]

Word family

• ζώνιον (zṓnion)
• ζωνάριον (zōnárion)
• περιζώνιον (perizṓnion)

Related words

• ζώννυμι (zṓnnumi)
• ζῶμα (zôma)
• ζωστήρ (zōstḗr)
• Latin zona
• English zone

Usage notes

Ammonius distinguishes the ζώνη, a man's belt, from the ζώνιον (zṓnion), a woman's, although Homer and later writers use ζώνη for women's girdles.^[16][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c d Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
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 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. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
7. ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b Adler, Ada, ed. (1928–1938), Suidae Lexicon, 5 vols, Leipzig: Teubner
11. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
12. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
13. ^ a b Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
14. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
15. ^ Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
16. ^ [Ammonius], De adfinium vocabulorum differentia, ed. K. Nickau (Leipzig: Teubner, 1966)