θησαυρός

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /tʰɛː.sau̯.rós/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /θi.saˈβros/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /θi.saˈvros/^[1]

Forms

θησαυρός (thēsaurós) m (genitive θησαυροῦ); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It has no etymology.^[2][3][4] Beekes regards it as a technical term borrowed from Pre-Greek, from Pre-Greek, and its shape suggests a pre-form in *-arw-.^[2][5] Scarborough's database rates the non-Greek origin as very reliable.^[6]

Older explanations divided it into θησ-, from τίθημι (títhēmi, “to put”), and a second part: either -αυρος “water” (as in ἄναυρος (ánauros)), giving “a place where water is stored”, or αὔρα (aúra, “breeze, air”), giving “a store set in the open air”.^[3][4] Kretschmer rejected the latter, and Πάπυρος notes that no other compound begins with such a θησ-.^[3][4][1]

Latin borrowed it as thēsaurus, together with the verb thēsaurizō.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Hesiod's Works and Days, which calls a sparing tongue the best treasure among men.^[7][2]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Greek it was a store or treasure, literal and figurative: Aeschylus calls the silver mines of Laurion a “treasure of the land”, Pindar speaks of a treasure of hymns, Euripides of a treasure of evils, and Xenophon of the treasures that the wise left behind in books.^[7][8] A proverb said of disappointed hopes that “the treasure turned out to be coals”.^[7]

It was also the place where things were kept: a storeroom or strong-room in Herodotus, and especially the small buildings that Greek cities put up at Delphi and other sanctuaries to hold their offerings.^[7][8] It could be a chest or casket for valuables, and Aeschylus calls a quiver a “treasure for arrows”.^[7][8] Inscriptions from the 4th century BC use it for the offertory box of a temple, and papyri of Ptolemaic Egypt for a granary.^[7]

In the Septuagint it is a treasure, a treasury or a granary.^[9] In the New Testament it is a treasure chest in Matthew, and the good man brings good things out of the good treasure of his heart.^[10][7]

Medieval vernacular Greek used it for treasure, wealth and a treasury.^[11] Modern Greek θησαυρός (thisavrós) is a treasure and the public treasury; as a learned word it names the treasuries of the ancient sanctuaries and the Mycenaean vaulted tombs, such as the “Treasury of Atreus”, and, after New Latin thesaurus, a dictionary of the whole vocabulary of a language.^[12][4]

Timeline

• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod calls a sparing tongue a treasure.^[7][13]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus calls the silver mines of Laurion a treasure of the land.^[7][8]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for a storeroom and for the treasuries at Delphi.^[7][8]
• 4th century BC – Inscriptions use it for the offertory box of a temple.^[7]
• 3rd century BC – Papyri use it for a granary.^[7]
• 1st century AD – Matthew uses it for a treasure chest.^[10]
• Modern Greek – It also means a dictionary of the whole vocabulary of a language.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A store, treasure or hoard.^[7][8]
2. A storeroom or strong-room; a treasury, especially one built by a city at a sanctuary such as Delphi.^[7][8]
3. A granary.^[7]
4. A chest or casket for valuables, and figuratively a quiver.^[7][8]
5. An offertory box in a temple.^[7]
6. (figurative) A treasure of something good or bad: of learning, of hymns, of the heart.^[7][10]

Word family

• θησαυρίζω (thēsaurízō)
• θησαύρισμα (thēsaúrisma)
• θησαυρισμός (thēsaurismós)
• θησαυροφύλαξ (thēsaurophúlax)
• θησαυρώδης (thēsaurṓdēs)

Related words

• Latin thēsaurus
• English thesaurus

Usage notes

Hesychius defines it as a building for keeping statues, money or sacred objects.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b c d Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
5. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ Scarborough, Matthew (2025), PHILOGLOSSA: database of Pre-Greek and other non-Indo-European words in Ancient Greek, version 1.0
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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 Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
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. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
12. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
13. ^ Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
14. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)