λίνον

Forms

λῐ́νον (línon) n (genitive λῐ́νου); second declension^[1] Mycenaean ri-no flax, at Knossos and Pylos; the tablets also have ri-ne-ja, women who work flax.^[2][3]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[1] The Greek word, with a short /i/, agrees with the Balto-Slavic words, Lithuanian linaĩ (“flax”), Russian лён (ljon) and Old Church Slavonic льнъ (lĭnŭ), but Latin līnum has a long vowel, as do Old Irish lín (“net”) and Gothic 𐌻𐌴𐌹𐌽 (lein), which are usually taken as loans from Latin.^[4][3][1] Wiktionary allows an inherited Proto-Indo-European *linom.^[1] Beekes and Chantraine accept that the words may be related from very early times, since flax has long been grown in Europe, but Beekes thinks it more probable that Greek and Latin each took the word from a European or Mediterranean language, and Chantraine allows such independent borrowings.^[4][3] The Byzantine etymologica derived it from λεῖος (leîos, “smooth”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Linear B tablets of Knossos and Pylos record flax as ri-no.^[2][3] In the Iliad it is a fishing line, the thread of destiny spun by the Fates, a net, and linen cloth.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

The word covers the flax plant and everything made from it: thread and cord, nets for fish, birds and game, and linen cloth and garments.^[6][3][7] The Homeric image of the thread of fate continues in Theocritus.^[6] Herodotus speaks of working flax, Thucydides of linseed, and Pausanias calls asbestos “Carpasian flax”.^[6][7] In the New Testament it is a lamp wick, a linen garment and a fishing net.^[8]

Saalfeld lists Latin linum as borrowed from it.^[9] The word survives into medieval vernacular Greek.^[10]

Timeline

• Mycenaean – The Knossos and Pylos tablets record flax.^[2][3]
• Homer – The Iliad uses it for a fishing line, the thread of fate and linen.^[6]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for the flax plant.^[6][7]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato quotes the proverb “to tie flax to flax”.^[6]
• 1st century AD – Matthew uses it of a smouldering wick.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The flax plant, Linum usitatissimum; its seed, linseed.^[6][7]
2. Flax fibre for spinning.^[6][7]
3. Linen thread; a cord, fishing line or string; the thread of destiny spun by the Fates.^[6][7]
4. A net for fishing, hunting or catching birds.^[6][8]
5. Linen cloth; a linen garment; sailcloth.^[6][8]
6. (New Testament) A lamp wick.^[8]

Word family

• λίνεος (líneos)
• λινόστολος (linóstolos)
• λίνινος (líninos)
• λινοθώρηξ (linothṓrēx)
• λινάριον (linárion)

Related words

• Latin linum

Usage notes

The proverb “to join flax to flax” (λίνον λίνῳ συνάπτειν), used by Plato, meant to join like to like.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Микенско-русский словарь (Mycenaean–Russian dictionary)
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 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 c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
10. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr