λακίζω

Forms

λᾰκίζω (lakízō); passive perfect participle λελακισμένος.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is a denominative verb from Ancient Greek λακίς (lakís, “rent, tatters”).^[3][4][5] It replaced an old primary verb, of which the only trace is the Cypriot gloss ἀπέληκα (apélēka, “I have broken off”) in Hesychius.^[3][5] Latin likewise gave up its primary verb for the denominative Latin lacerō (“to tear”).^[3][5]

For λακίς Beekes tentatively reconstructs a root Proto-Indo-European *lh₂k- (“to tear”), which Wiktionary writes *leh₂k-.^[3][6] Beekes and Chantraine suppose an s-stem noun, perhaps seen in the Cretan plural λάκη (lákē, “rags”), matching the noun that the Latin verb presupposes, with the later adjective Latin lacer (“torn”) as a back-formation.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Lycophron's Alexandra, of a body torn apart in slaughter.^[1][7][2]

Semantic evolution

The word is rare and late.^[2] After Lycophron it is used in epigrams of the Greek Anthology, of tearing and rending, and an inscription from Phrygia speaks of someone “torn by wolves”.^[1] A papyrus of the 1st century AD uses it for splitting reeds, and Hesychius records a sense “to flatter”.^[1] Its family includes λακίσματα “shreds” in Euripides and λακιστός “torn to pieces”.^[3][4]

Modern Greek λακίζω (lakízo) “to take to one's heels” is not this verb: Triantafyllidis derives it from λακώ (lakó), Hellenistic λακῶ “to burst”, perhaps through medieval γλακώ “to run”.^[8]

Timeline

• 4th–3rd century BC – Lycophron's Alexandra uses it of tearing a body.^[1][2]
• 1st century AD – A papyrus from Oxyrhynchus uses it for splitting reeds, and Josephus has the perfect passive participle.^[1][2]
• 2nd century AD – Appian uses the perfect passive participle.^[2][9]
• 6th century AD – Agathias uses the passive in an epigram.^[1][7][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To tear, rend, tear to pieces; passive, to be torn.^[1][10][7]
2. To split (reeds).^[1]
3. To flatter (a sense recorded by Hesychius).^[1][7]

Word family

• λακίς (lakís)
• λάκισμα (lákisma)
• λακιστός (lakistós)
• περιλακίζω (perilakízō)

Related words

• λάκη (lákē)
• Latin lacerō
• Latin lacer

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
2. ^ a b c d e f Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
3. ^ a b c d e f 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
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
7. ^ a b c d Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
8. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
10. ^ Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.