λύω

Forms

λῡ̆́ω (lū́ō) ^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *lewH- (“to cut off, loosen”), which Beekes reconstructs as Proto-Indo-European *lh₁u-, perhaps a u-present of Proto-Indo-European *leh₁-.^[1][2][3] The Greek verb system is the result of levelling: the Homeric athematic aorist λύμην (lúmēn), λύτο (lúto), with a short vowel, is archaic, and the thematic present λύω is newer.^[2][4] Its vowel was short in Homer and became long in Attic, probably after the aorist λῦσαι (lûsai).^[2][5]

Cognate with Latin luō (“to atone, pay”), to which solvō (“to loosen, release”) belongs, from *seluō; the long vowel of solūtus and of a Sanskrit participle meaning “cut off” agrees with that of Greek βουλυτός (boulutós) and points to a laryngeal in the root.^[2] Further cognates are Sanskrit लुनाति (lunā́ti, “to cut off, sever”) and Lithuanian liáuti (“to stop”), and, with an s-extension, English loose and lose.^[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from the opening of the Iliad, where the priest Chryses comes to the ships to ransom his daughter (the middle, λυσόμενος).^[6][7] Homer uses it of undoing a belt or armour, unyoking horses, releasing prisoners for ransom, dismissing an assembly and settling quarrels; when a warrior's knees or limbs are “loosened”, his strength fails and he falls or dies.^[8][7]

Semantic evolution

From “loosen” the verb came to mean “dissolve, break up, destroy”: buildings are pulled down, laws and treaties annulled, and difficulties or riddles solved.^[9][7] Chantraine notes that it sometimes means “be useful”, like λυσιτελέω (lūsiteléō), and the active is used intransitively for “it pays”.^[5][9] The middle means “to pay, expiate”, and in medicine the passive is used of the bowels being emptied.^[9] The Atticist lexica note that “to ransom” takes the price in the genitive.^[10]

In the Septuagint it is used of untying sandals and opening sacks, of setting free and of destroying.^[11] In the New Testament Jesus says “destroy this temple” with λύω, and the pairing with δέω (déō, “to bind”), “binding and loosing”, is the power given to the disciples.^[12][13]

Medieval vernacular Greek used both λύω and the newer present Byzantine Greek λύνω (lúno).^[14] In Modern Greek the everyday verb is λύνω (líno); Modern Greek λύω (lío) is a learned word.^[15][16]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses the middle of ransoming a prisoner and the active of loosening bonds and armour.^[6][8][7]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus and the tragedians use it of setting free and of annulling.^[7][17]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses the future passive of the dissolution of what is bound together.^[7][17]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – The Septuagint uses it of untying sandals and of setting people free.^[11]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it of destroying the temple, and pairs it with “binding”.^[12]
• Middle Ages – The vernacular has both λύω and Byzantine Greek λύνω (lúno).^[14]
• Modern Greek – Modern Greek λύνω (líno) is the everyday verb, λύω a learned one.^[15][16]

Meanings

Verb

1. To loosen, untie, undo: bonds, a belt, armour; to unyoke horses.^[7][9][8]
2. To set free, release, from bonds, prison or danger.^[7][8]
3. To release a prisoner for ransom; in the middle, to get someone released by paying a ransom.^[7][8][9]
4. To dismiss an assembly; to settle a quarrel; to dispel cares.^[8]
5. To break up, dissolve, destroy; to pull down a building; to annul a law or treaty.^[9][12]
6. To solve a difficulty or a riddle.^[9]
7. (intransitive) To pay, be profitable.^[9][5]
8. (middle) To pay, expiate.^[9]
9. (New Testament) To loose, as opposed to δέω (déō, “to bind”).^[12]

Word family

• λυτός (lutós)
• λυτέος (lutéos)
• λύσιμος (lúsimos)
• λύσις (lúsis)
• ἄλυτος (álutos)
• λυτήρ (lutḗr)
• λυτήριος (lutḗrios)
• λυτικός (lutikós)
• λύτρον (lútron)
• λυσιτελέω (lūsiteléō)
• λυσιτελής (lūsitelḗs)
• λύται (lútai)
• λυτηριάς (lutēriás)
• λύτωρ (lútōr)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
4. ^ Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d e f Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Montanari, Franco (2015), The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek, ed. Madeleine Goh and Chad Schroeder, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Lexica Segueriana, in Immanuel Bekker, ed. (1814), Anecdota Graeca I, Berlin: Nauck
11. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
12. ^ a b c d 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
13. ^ United Bible Societies (2023), UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (revised Louw–Nida semantic domains), open-licence ed.
14. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
15. ^ a b Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
16. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
17. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge