μέθυ

Forms

μέθῠ (méthu) n (genitive μέθῠος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *métʰu (“intoxicating drink, mead”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *médʰu (“honey, mead”), an old word for honey and mead that was kept in most Indo-European languages.^[2][1][3] Cognate with Sanskrit मधु (mádhu, “honey”), Lithuanian medùs (“honey”), Old Church Slavonic медъ (medŭ, “honey”) and Old English medu (“mead”).^[2][1] The Homeric phrase “sweet μέθυ” has a counterpart in the Vedic hymns.^[3][4]

In Greek the meaning “honey” was taken over by the also inherited μέλι (méli), and μέθυ was left to mean wine alone.^[2][4] The word probably existed in Mycenaean, but the form Mycenaean Greek me-tu-wo-ne-wo that has been compared remains obscure.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is wine, the drink at feasts: in the Iliad much μέθυ is drunk, and in the Odyssey it is named beside bread as provisions.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

It stayed a poetic word, used by Archilochus, Xenophanes, Sophocles, Euripides and Apollonius of Rhodes, and only in the nominative and accusative.^[6][5] Aeschylus uses it, with a phrase “from barley”, for the beer of the Egyptians.^[6][5] A genitive is first found in an epigram attributed to Plato and in Nicander.^[5]

The word itself soon went out of use, but its derivatives lived on: μεθύω (methúō) “to be drunk”, μεθύσκω (methúskō) “to make drunk” and μέθη (méthē) “drunkenness”.^[2][3]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for wine.^[5][7]
• 7th century BC – Archilochus uses it.^[6][8]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it of beer made from barley.^[6][5][8]
• 5th–4th century BC – An epigram attributed to Plato has the first genitive, μέθυος.^[5][8]
• 2nd century BC – Nicander also uses the genitive.^[5][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. An intoxicating drink, wine.^[5][6][2]
2. With a phrase “from barley”, beer.^[6][5]

Word family

• μεθύω (methúō)
• μεθύσκω (methúskō)
• μέθη (méthē)
• μέθυσος (méthusos)
• μεθυστικός (methustikós)

Related words

• Old English medu

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d 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
4. ^ a b Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge