Etymologically
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λείβω

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /lěː.bɔː/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈli.βo/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈli.vo/[1]

Forms

λείβω (leíbō) [1] Aorist infinitive λεῖψαι, participle λείψας (Homer); middle aorist ἐλειψάμην (Euripides); passive from Hesiod on.[2][3]

Etymology

The origin is disputed.[1] According to the LIV it is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *leyH- (“to pour”), with a Narten present; the root is also in Latvian liet (“to pour”) and Lithuanian líeti.[4][1][5] Beekes then takes the ⟨β⟩ as secondary, perhaps after εἴβω (eíbō, “to drip”), and finds the zero grade of λίψ (líps) beside the full grade of λείβω unexpected, comparing νείφει (neíphei) beside νίφα (nípha).[5][6] Latin lībō (“to pour out”) may be borrowed from Greek, or unrelated if it comes from Proto-Indo-European *h₂libʰ- (“to anoint”).[5] Garnier instead derives the verb from the noun λοιβή (loibḗ, “libation”), from a substrate language.[1]

The verb has an o-grade noun, “libation”, and a zero-grade noun, “drop”, also the rainy south-west wind, with λιβάς (libás, “spring”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it of pouring wine as a libation to the gods, and of shedding tears.[3][2][7]

Semantic evolution

In Homer it is the verb of the libation, like σπένδω (spéndō), with the wine as object and the god in the dative, or used absolutely; it is rare in this sense in tragedy.[2][3] Its other Homeric sense, to let tears flow, continues in Aeschylus and Sophocles, and in the passive the tears are shed (Euripides, Xenophon).[2][7]

It is also said of other liquids: foam drips from the mouth in the Shield attributed to Hesiod, and Callimachus has hair dripping with oil.[2][7] Plato uses it figuratively, of letting one's spirit melt away.[2] Hesychius and Zonaras gloss it as “to drip” and “to pour a libation”.[8][9]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it of pouring libations and shedding tears.[3][2]
  • Before the 6th century BC – The Shield attributed to Hesiod uses the passive of dripping foam.[2][10]
  • 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it of tears and of libations.[2][10]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it of letting the spirit melt away.[2][10]
  • 4th–3rd century BC – Callimachus uses it of hair dripping with oil.[2][7][10]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To pour as a libation; absolutely, to make a libation.[2][7][3]
  2. To let flow, to shed tears; in the passive, of tears, to be shed, and of a person, to stream with tears.[2][7]
  3. Of other liquids, to drip with; in the passive, to drip.[2][7]
  4. (figurative) To melt one's spirit away.[2]

Word family

  • ἀπολείβω (apoleíbō)
  • ἐπιλείβω (epileíbō)
  • καταλείβω (kataleíbō)
  • συλλείβω (sulleíbō)
  • ὑπολείβω (hupoleíbō)
  • λιβάδιον (libádion)
  • λιβάς (libás)
  • λίβηθρον (líbēthron)
  • λιβηρός (libērós)
  • λίβος (líbos)
  • λιβρός (librós)
  • λίψ (líps)
  • λοιβεῖον (loibeîon)
  • λοιβή (loibḗ)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  4. ^ Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  8. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
  9. ^ Pseudo-Zonaras, Lexicon, ed. Johann August Heinrich Tittmann (1808), Iohannis Zonarae Lexicon, Leipzig: Crusius
  10. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge