Etymologically
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λάπτω

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /láp.tɔː/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈlap.to/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈlap.to/[1]

Forms

λᾰ́πτω (láptō) [1] Future λάψω (Iliad), aorist ἔλαψα, perfect λέλαφα (Aristophanes); middle future λάψομαι and aorist ἐλαψάμην.[2][3]

Etymology

Beekes and Chantraine call it an expressive, onomatopoeic word.[4][3][1] Similar words are found in other Indo-European languages: Albanian lap (“to lap”), said of dogs and cats, Proto-Slavic *lopati (“to eat greedily”), Lithuanian lapènti (“to absorb greedily”), said of pigs, Old English lapian (“to lap”), Middle High German leffen (“to gulp down”) and French laper.[4][1][3] Chantraine adds Latin lambō (“to lick”), with a nasal infix, and λαφύσσω (laphússō, “to gulp down”).[3] Schulze instead compared the future and aorist with Lithuanian làkti (“to lap”), assuming a labiovelar; the present would then be secondary.[4][3] Since Proto-Indo-European had no ⟨*a⟩, Beekes thinks the word rather Pre-Greek.[4]

Ancient grammarians derived it from an intensive prefix ⟨λα-⟩ and ἅπτω (háptō, “to touch”), “to touch violently”.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Iliad wolves go to a spring to lap its dark water with their tongues (“λάψοντες γλώσσῃσιν”).[6][2][7]

Semantic evolution

Aristotle uses it of the sharp-toothed animals that drink by lapping, and Aelian of lapping with the tongue.[2] In comedy it becomes drinking greedily: Aristophanes has “you have gulped blood”, and the compounds ἀπολάπτω (apoláptō) and ἐκλάπτω (ekláptō), “to gulp down, lap up”.[2][3] The Septuagint uses it of the men who lap water with their tongues like dogs.[8][2] From it comes λάψις (lápsis), “lapping”, in Aristotle.[4]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad uses it of wolves lapping water.[6][2]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it of drinking greedily, with compounds.[2][3][9]
  • 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it of animals that drink by lapping.[2][9]
  • 3rd–2nd century BC – The Septuagint uses it in the Book of Judges of men lapping water.[8]
  • 2nd–3rd century AD – Athenaeus uses it of gulping wine.[2][9]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To lap with the tongue, of wolves and dogs.[2][7]
  2. To drink greedily, to gulp down; also in the middle.[2]

Word family

  • ἀπολάπτω (apoláptō)
  • ἐκλάπτω (ekláptō)
  • λάψις (lápsis)
  • περιλάπτω (periláptō)
  • λαφύσσω (laphússō)
  • Latin lambō
  • English lap

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g 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 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. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
  6. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  7. ^ a b Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  8. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
  9. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge