Etymologically
Log in

λάσκω

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 25 October 2026 at 02:15. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /lás.kɔː/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈlas.ko/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈlas.ko/[1]

Forms

λάσκω (láskō) [1]

Etymology

The verb was built up from the root aorist λακεῖν (lakeîn) and the perfect λέλακα (lélaka) (Ionic λέληκα (lélēka)), as κράζω (krázō) has a root aorist beside a perfect with a long vowel; the present λάσκω stands for older *λάκ-σκω (*lákskō).[2] From the perfect come λακέω (lakéō) and ληκέω (lēkéō).[2]

Beekes finds no etymology for it, and Frisk none certain outside Greek.[2][3] Frisk mentions a comparison with an Albanian verb “to flatter” and a link with the sound words grouped around λῆρος (lêros, “nonsense”), which he finds hardly credible.[3] Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *l̥h₂-k-sḱéti (“to bark, growl”).[1]

Ancient grammarians derived it from a verb “to want”, as if a shout expressed a wish.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer the aorist is used of things that crack or ring, bones broken by a blow and bronze struck by swords, and the perfect of a falcon's scream and of Scylla's yelping.[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

Chantraine notes that the two oldest forms had different uses: the perfect was said of the cries of dogs and birds, the aorist of crashes and crackling.[6] Hesiod uses it of a burning forest and of a nightingale in the falcon's claws, and Semonides of a woman who yaps like a dog.[7][5]

In tragedy it became a word for human cries and for loud, solemn speech: Aeschylus and Sophocles use it of oracles and of messengers who proclaim, and Euripides of singing to the pipe.[5][7] Comedy borrowed this tragic sound, and the word stayed rare in prose: Aristotle uses it when he says that the black eagle does not scream.[5][6] The form in the New Testament story of Judas, who “burst open”, was once taken for this verb, but BDAG assigns it to λακάω (lakáō).[8]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad uses the aorist of bones that crack and bronze that rings, and the perfect of a falcon's scream.[5][7]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it of a crackling forest and of a nightingale's cry.[5][7][9]
  • 7th–6th century BC – Semonides uses it of a woman who yelps like a dog.[7][9]
  • 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it of shouts of triumph and of oracles that proclaim.[5][7][9]
  • 5th century BC – Euripides uses it of singing to the pipe.[5][9]
  • 4th century BC – Aristotle notes that the black eagle does not scream.[5][9]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To make a sharp sound: to ring, crack, crackle, creak.[5][7]
  2. Of animals: to shriek, scream, howl, bark.[5][7]
  3. Of people: to shout, cry out, scream.[5][7]
  4. Of gods, prophets or messengers: to speak with authority, proclaim, utter an oracle.[5][7]
  5. To speak loudly, declare, shout something at someone.[7]
  • λακάω (lakáō)

Usage notes

The sense of cracking occurs only in the second aorist, and the cries of animals mostly in the perfect.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  4. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge