θείνω

Forms

θείνω (theínō) ^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰen- (“to strike, slay”), as a full-grade present with the suffix *-ye-.^[2][3][1] Wiktionary gives the Proto-Hellenic form as *kʷʰéňňō, from *gʷʰén-ye-ti, and notes the alternative proposal of the linguist Andreas Willi, who takes θείνω as formed secondarily from an older present *θένω (thénō).^[1] Frisk and Beekes compare Lithuanian geniù (“to lop off branches”), which matches it exactly in form.^[4][2]

The root is better preserved in an athematic present: Sanskrit हन्ति (hánti), Avestan jainti and Hittite kuenzi, all “he strikes, kills”, from *gʷʰén-ti.^[2][3][4] Latin has it, with a suffix in -d-, in Latin dēfendō and offendō.^[2][3] Other cognates are Old Armenian ջնեմ (ǰnem, “to slay”) and Old English bana (“slayer, bane”).^[1][2] Chantraine explains the sense “to kill” as a euphemism, “to strike down”.^[3] In Greek the same root gives the reduplicated aorist ἔπεφνον (épephnon, “I slew”) and the noun φόνος (phónos, “murder”).^[4][1][2]

The lexicon of Zonaras glosses it as τύπτω (túptō, “to strike”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is a Homeric verb for striking: the Iliad has the passive of a person being beaten (1.588), and uses the active of striking someone on the neck with a sword (20.481) and of driving horses with the whip (17.430).^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

It remained a poetic word.^[7] Pindar uses it of a blow with a staff, and Aeschylus of ships ramming one another, of drowned men dashed against the shore, and figuratively of lashing someone with taunts.^[8][7] Euripides and Aristophanes have a second aorist, θενεῖν, made secondarily on this present, and Aristophanes a future θενῶ.^[3][7] The reduplicated aorist ἔπεφνον (épephnon), which belongs to the same verb, kept the old sense “to kill, slay”.^[8][3]

Papyros describes the present as rare and poetic.^[9]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for striking with the hand, a sword or a whip.^[6][7]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it of striking someone with a staff (Olympian 7.28).^[7][10][11]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it of ships ramming one another.^[8][11]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes has the future θενῶ (Acharnians 564).^[7][11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To strike, smite a person or a part of the body, with a weapon, a hammer, the hand or the foot.^[8][7][6]
2. To lash horses with a whip or goad.^[8][6]
3. (of a ship) To ram another ship.^[8]
4. (intransitive) To strike against something, as drowned men against a shore.^[8] (passive) to be dashed by waves or against rocks.^[8]
5. (figurative) To lash someone with a taunt.^[8]
6. (reduplicated aorist ἔπεφνον (épephnon)) To kill, slay.^[8][2]

Related words

• φόνος (phónos)
• Latin dēfendō
• Latin offendō

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 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 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
4. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ Pseudo-Zonaras, Lexicon, ed. Johann August Heinrich Tittmann (1808), Iohannis Zonarae Lexicon, Leipzig: Crusius
6. ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
10. ^ Slater, William J. (1969), Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: De Gruyter
11. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge