λύγος

Forms

λύγος (lúgos) f (genitive λύγου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Proto-Indo-European *lewg- (“to bend, twist”), as a verbal noun whose first meaning would be “a turning, bending”,^[2][3] but Beekes marks the Indo-European origin with a query.^[2]

Interpreted in this way, it can be compared with Lithuanian lùgnas (“supple”) and its counterpart Old Norse lykna (“to bend the knee”), with Latin luxus (“dislocated”), and with luctor (“to wrestle”), originally “to twist oneself”.^[2][4][3] Chantraine and Pokorny add Proto-Germanic *luką (“lock of hair”).^[4][5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it for pliant twigs or withies: in the Iliad they bind two captives, and in the Odyssey they tie rams together.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

The plant is the chaste tree, the same as ἄγνος (ágnos), and the word named both the shrub and its flexible branches, used for binding, plaiting and wreaths.^[7][4] Anacreon speaks of a man wreathed with it.^[7] It was a symbol of chastity, and at Sparta Artemis had the epithet Lygodesma, “bound with withies”.^[4][2] The word stayed in poetry and late prose, and Dioscorides and Galen use it as the name of the plant.^[4][8]

From it come λύγινος (lúginos, “made of withies”) and λυγόω (lugóō, “to twist”), and the same stem gives λυγίζω (lugízō, “to bend”), used of wrestlers and dancers.^[2][3] Latin borrowed it as lygos.^[1]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for withies used to bind men and rams.^[6][7]
• 6th century BC – Anacreon speaks of a wreath of it.^[7][9]
• 5th century BC – Euripides' Cyclops uses it for binding withies.^[7][9]
• 1st century AD – Dioscorides uses it as the name of the chaste tree.^[8][9]
• 2nd century AD – Pausanias records the Spartan epithet of Artemis “bound with withies”.^[4][2][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The chaste tree, Vitex agnus-castus.^[7][1][8]
2. A pliant twig of it, a withy used for binding or plaiting.^[7][6][2]

Word family

• λυγέα (lugéa)
• λύγινος (lúginos)
• λυγόω (lugóō)
• λυγώδης (lugṓdēs)

Related words

• λυγίζω (lugízō)
• ἄγνος (ágnos)
• Latin luctor

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 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
6. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Montanari, Franco (2015), The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek, ed. Madeleine Goh and Chad Schroeder, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge