λάσιος

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /lá.si.os/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈla.si.os/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈla.si.os/^[1]

Forms

λάσῐος (lásios) m (feminine λᾰσίᾱ, neuter λάσῐον); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

Beekes leaves the origin open.^[2] If the word comes from an older ⟨*ϝλάτιος⟩, it may be inherited from Proto-Indo-European *u̯l̥ti̯o-, with the zero grade of a root seen in words for hairy things: Old Irish folt (“hair”), Lithuanian váltis (“bunch of oats”) and, according to Solmsen, German Wald (“forest”).^[2][3][4] Wiktionary names Proto-Indo-European *welH- (compare Proto-Germanic *walþuz (“forest”)) or Proto-Indo-European *h₂welh₁- (“wool”).^[1] Beekes and Chantraine compare λάχνη (lákhnē, “woolly hair”).^[2][3]

Ancient grammarians derived it from an intensive prefix ⟨λα-⟩ and σεύω (seúō, “to drive, put in motion”), because hair stands upright.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Iliad it describes the shaggy chest of Achilles and the hairy heart of a strong warrior, and the woolly sheep.^[7][8][9]

Semantic evolution

In Homer a hairy breast was a sign of strength,^[8][7] and a Hippocratic writer still praises a chest that is square and hairy;^[8] but in Aristophanes' Clouds hairiness marks coarseness, and in Alexander Aetolus cunning.^[8] The word describes the shaggy animals in Sophocles and Xenophon, the bees in Theocritus, and the Cyclops' eyebrow.^[8][9]

Of land it means bushy, overgrown: Empedocles has it of the earth, Xenophon of thickets from which game is driven, and Lucian, with a dative, of land overgrown with woods.^[8] From it come λασιών (lasiṓn), “thicket”, also a place name, and compounds such as λασιαύχην (lasiaúkhēn), “with shaggy neck”.^[2][3] Πάπυρος records λάσιος (lásios), “thickly haired”, in Modern Greek.^[10]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it of a warrior's hairy chest and of woolly sheep.^[7][8]
• 5th century BC – Empedocles uses it of the earth, Sophocles of shaggy beasts.^[8][11]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes makes hairiness a mark of coarseness, and Xenophon uses it of thickets.^[8][11]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theocritus uses it of bees and of the Cyclops' eyebrow.^[8][9][11]
• 2nd century AD – Lucian uses it of land overgrown with woods.^[8][11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Shaggy, woolly, of sheep and other animals.^[8][9]
2. Hairy, of people and parts of the body; of the heart, as a sign of strength.^[8][9][7]
3. Of land, bushy, overgrown; with a dative, overgrown with.^[8]

Word family

• λασιών (lasiṓn)

Related words

• λάχνη (lákhnē)

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 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. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
5. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
6. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
10. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
11. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge