μῖσος

Forms

μῖσος (mîsos) n (genitive μῑ́σους); third declension^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is unknown.^[2][3] Beekes, following Furnée, considers the word family (with the verb μισέω (miséō, “to hate”)) Pre-Greek, because a suffix -σος (-sos) does not occur in inherited words; he takes the /s/ as an assibilated dental /*ty/.^[4][5] Wiktionary reports the traditional derivation from Proto-Indo-European *mewHdʰ- (“to complain, be emotional about”), compared with Latin maereō (“to mourn”).^[1] Frisk and Chantraine reject the links with Latin miser and Latin mittō and Pisani's *μίνθιος (*mínthios) from μίνθος (mínthos, “dung”).^[3][2][6]

Beekes, Chantraine and Frisk doubt that the verb is derived from μῖσος: the verb is attested earlier (already in the Iliad), and its aorist μίσησεν (mísēsen) is not the form a denominative from an s-stem would have.^[4][2][3] Ancient grammarians derived it from μή (mḗ) and ἴσος (ísos), “not equal” (Orion), or from μύω (múō, “to close the eyes”) (Choeroboscus).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cambridge lexicon cites Alcaeus, the first author with the word, for its use of a hateful person; the earliest passage in the corpus is in Aeschylus's Agamemnon.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

In tragedy it means both the hatred one feels and the hatred one incurs, and a hateful person: “O object of hate!” is an insult in Sophocles and Euripides.^[10][8] In Attic prose it is the hatred people bear one another, and the hatred one draws on oneself by one's acts.^[10][8] The plural meant feelings of hatred.^[8]

The Septuagint and early Christian writers use it for hate, for instance in the Didache, where love will turn into hatred in the last days.^[11] Medieval vernacular Greek kept the word.^[12] Modern Greek μίσος (mísos), strong enmity or aversion, is a learned word.^[13]

Timeline

• 7th–6th century BC – Alcaeus uses it of a hateful person.^[8][14]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus's Agamemnon uses it of hatred incurred and of a hated person.^[10][9]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles and Euripides use it as an insult, and Thucydides for hatred felt.^[10][8]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato and Xenophon use it for mutual enmity.^[10]
• Modern Greek – μίσος (mísos) means hatred.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. Hatred felt against another, a grudge.^[10][8]
2. Hatred borne by others toward oneself; with ἔχειν, to incur someone's hatred.^[10]
3. (in the plural) Feelings of hatred.^[8]
4. A hateful person or thing, an object of hate, often in address.^[10][8]

Related words

• μισέω (miséō)
• μίσημα (mísēma)
• μισητός (misētós)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b 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
5. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
7. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
10. ^ 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
11. ^ 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
12. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
13. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
14. ^ Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge