Etymologically
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νάρδος

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /nár.dos/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈnar.ðos/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈnar.ðos/[1]

Forms

νᾰ́ρδος (nárdos) f (genitive νᾰ́ρδου); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is a Semitic loanword, according to Beekes from Phoenician.[2][3][4] Related forms are Biblical Hebrew נֵרְדְּ (nērd), Aramaic נִרְדָּא (nirdā) and Akkadian lardu;[1][2] Chantraine adds that the Akkadian word itself probably came from West Semitic.[1][2][5] Since the plant comes from India, the Semitic words are thought to go back to Sanskrit नलद (nálada, “Indian nard”), while the old link with नड (naḍá, “reed”) is rejected.[2][5][1] Rosół also derives the name from a language of the Middle East and notes that the plant grows in Nepal and the Himalaya.[3] Furnée, cited by Beekes, compares νάρθηξ (nárthēx) and speaks of a Middle Eastern culture word.[2]

Latin borrowed it as nardus and nardum.[2][5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Theophrastus, in the 4th–3rd century BC, names nard among the aromatics brought from India.[7][3][8]

Semantic evolution

Theophrastus and Nicander use it of the spikenard plant, and Dioscorides distinguishes Indian, Celtic, mountain and Syrian nard, names that cover several different plants.[7][5] A papyrus of the 3rd century BC already has it for the costly oil made from the root.[7][9] The Septuagint uses it three times in the Song of Songs for the Hebrew word.[4] The Gospels of Mark and John speak of an ointment of nard, which John values at three hundred denarii.[9][10]

Medieval Greek used it of the plant and of its oil as a medicine.[11] In Modern Greek νάρδος (nárdos) names the valerian.[12] The English word nard comes from it through Latin nardus and Old French.[13]

Timeline

  • 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus names it among the spices from India.[7][3][14]
  • 3rd century BC – A papyrus records oil of nard.[7][9]
  • 2nd century BC – The Septuagint uses it in the Song of Songs.[4][8]
  • 1st century AD – Dioscorides distinguishes several kinds, and the Gospels of Mark and John tell of the anointing with nard.[7][9][14]
  • About 1200 – English borrows nard through Old French and Latin.[13]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Spikenard, the aromatic Indian plant Nardostachys jatamansi.[7][10][2]
  2. Other aromatic plants called nard, such as Celtic nard, a valerian.[7]
  3. Oil or ointment of nard.[7][9]

Word family

  • νάρδινος (nárdinos)

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 d Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
  4. ^ a b c Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  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 Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  9. ^ a b c d e 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
  10. ^ a b Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  11. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  12. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  13. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  14. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge