θήρ

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /tʰɛ̌ːr/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈθir/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈθir/^[1]

Forms

θήρ (thḗr) m or f (genitive θηρός); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *kʷʰḗr, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰwer- (“wild animal”).^[1] Aeolic has φήρ (phḗr), with /pʰ/ from the old labiovelar.^[2][1] Mycenaean has Mycenaean Greek qe-ro and qe-ri-jo.^[1]

The plural θῆρες (thêres), θηρῶν (thērôn) matches the dialectal forms Lithuanian žvė́res (“wild animals”), žvėrų̃ exactly, from *ǵʰwēr-es, *ǵʰwēr-ōm;^[3][4] the singular was moved into the /i/-declension in žvėrìs and Old Church Slavonic звѣрь (zvěrĭ, “wild beast”).^[3] Latin ferus (“wild”) has a short vowel.^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it for a wild beast or wild creature, as in the Iliad (3.449), and opposes it to birds and fishes: “eaten by fish at sea, or by beasts and birds on land” (Odyssey 24.291).^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

It remained mainly an epic and poetic word.^[3] It is often a lion, so used in Cephallenia according to a scholiast, and in tragedy it is the Nemean lion, the Erymanthian boar, Cerberus or a hind.^[6][7] The Centaurs, the satyrs and the Sphinx are “beasts” too.^[7] Its derivative θηρίον (thēríon), found from the Odyssey on and originally a softening diminutive, also became after Homer the general word for an animal.^[2][3]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for wild beasts.^[5]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod opposes beasts to fishes and birds.^[6][8]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it for the Erymanthian boar and Cerberus.^[6][8]
• 5th century BC – Euripides uses it for the Nemean lion.^[6][8]
• Early Christian – The First Epistle of Clement uses it for wild animals.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wild animal, beast, beast of prey.^[6][7]
2. Especially a lion.^[6][7]
3. (mythology) A monstrous creature: a centaur, satyr, the Sphinx, Cerberus.^[7]
4. Rarely, a domestic animal.^[7]

Word family

• θηρίον (thēríon)
• μιξόθηρ (mixóthēr)

Related words

• Latin ferus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
5. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
6. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
9. ^ 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