λαγαρός

Forms

λᾰγᾰρός (lagarós) m (feminine λᾰγᾰρᾱ́, neuter λᾰγᾰρόν); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

Beekes groups it with λαγαίω (lagaíō, “to release”), λάγανον (láganon, “thin cake”), λάγνος (lágnos, “lascivious”) and λαγών (lagṓn, “flank”), and with a different ablaut grade λήγω (lḗgō, “to cease”).^[2][1] The adjective is formed like its synonym χαλαρός (khalarós, “slack”).^[2] It is usually derived from Proto-Indo-European *(s)leh₁g- (“weak, faint”).^[1]

Beekes compares a Germanic adjective for “slack”, Old Norse slakr, Old English slæc, with Old Irish lac, Tocharian A slākkär (“sad”) and Latin laxus (“loose”).^[2][1] Because the Indo-European root with a laryngeal would have given a long vowel in Greek, these comparisons are not explained, and he suggests either a secondary zero grade in Greek or a European substrate word.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in classical Attic and Ionic prose and comedy: Xenophon uses it of the hollow flanks of a hound and of the supple part of a horse's neck, the Hippocratic treatise On the Heart of a ventricle, and Aristophanes of slim dancing-girls.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Its sense hesitates between “hollow, thin” and “slack, loose”, and the CGL gives both for several passages.^[4][3] Plutarch uses its superlative for the weakest point of a wall, and Themistius uses it figuratively of a city that was empty and loose before it was filled with splendour.^[3] The Etymologicum Genuinum derived λάγανον (láganon), a thin cake, from it and it from λήγω (lḗgō).^[5]

In Modern Greek λαγαρός (lagarós) means “clear, limpid”, of water and of style; this sense arose in the Middle Ages.^[6][5][7]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Xenophon uses it of a hound's flanks and a horse's neck, and Aristophanes of slim dancers.^[3][4]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it of the least defended part of a wall.^[3][4]
• 9th century AD – The Etymologicum Genuinum derives it from λήγω (lḗgō).^[5]
• Modern Greek – λαγαρός (lagarós) means “clear, limpid”.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Hollow, sunken; of a hound's flanks, of terrain.^[3][4]
2. Slim, thin; of dancers, of pillars.^[4][3]
3. Slack, loose, flexible; of part of a horse's neck.^[3][4]
4. (neuter, as a noun) The weakest part of a wall.^[3][4]

Word family

• λαγαρίζομαι (lagarízomai)
• λαγαρότης (lagarótēs)

Related words

• λήγω (lḗgō)
• λαγαίω (lagaíō)
• λάγανον (láganon)
• λαγών (lagṓn)
• English slack
• Latin laxus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 e f g h i Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
6. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
7. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr