πάσσω

Forms

πᾰ́σσω (pássō) ^[1] Attic πάττω.^[2][3]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.^[4][1] Beekes compares the forms with η that Hesychius glosses as “sprinkle” and “to sprinkle”, πῆ (pê) and πῆν (pên), and especially Epidaurian ἐπιπῆν (epipên) “to sprinkle on” of a drug, which matches Homer's phrase for sprinkling drugs on a wound.^[2][1] If the long vowel of those forms is set aside, a reconstruction Proto-Indo-European *kʷh₂t- would connect Latin quatiō (“to shake”) and Proto-Celtic *kʷāti- (“chaff”); but the Epidaurian vowel speaks against it, and Chantraine finds the link with Latin unlikely.^[2][4][1] The LIV derives the verb from a root Proto-Indo-European *(s)kweh₁t- (“to shake, jolt”).^[5][1] De Vaan, cited by Wiktionary, sees formal problems with any Indo-European root and takes both the Greek and the Latin verb from a common substrate word.^[1]

Frisk, following Bechtel, saw the verb and its forms with η in the same relation as πῆμα (pêma) and Latin patior;^[6] Chantraine notes that this explains the forms without giving an etymology.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses only the present and imperfect, and only in the Iliad: warriors and healers sprinkle soothing drugs on a wound, and salt is sprinkled on roasting meat.^[3][7] Once it is said of weaving: flowered patterns are worked into a web.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

In Attic, as πάττω, comedy uses it for showering someone with gold or roses and for salting food.^[3][9] Theophrastus and the physicians have it for sprinkling a dish or a sore, and the medical writers made πάσμα (pásma, “powder”) from it.^[9][2] Apollonius Rhodius revived the Homeric weaving sense: figures “sprinkled” across the border of a cloak.^[9][3] In the Septuagint the middle is to sprinkle oneself with ashes in mourning.^[3]

Its derivatives include παστός (pastós), an embroidered curtain and then the bridal bed or chamber, and χρυσόπαστος (khrusópastos, “shot with gold”) in Aeschylus.^[2] Medieval Greek used the verb for sprinkling powder on something, and it survives in Modern Greek dialects as πάτσω.^[10]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for sprinkling drugs on wounds and salt on meat, and once of weaving patterns into cloth.^[7][3]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes, in the Attic form πάττω, uses it for showering someone with gold or roses.^[3][9][11]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus uses it for sprinkling salt and other things.^[9][3][11]
• 3rd century BC – Apollonius Rhodius uses it of figures woven across a cloak.^[9][11]
• 2nd–1st century BC – The Septuagint uses the middle for sprinkling oneself with ashes.^[3][12]
• Medieval Greek – It means to sprinkle powder or seasoning; dialects keep it as πάτσω.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sprinkle, scatter: drugs on a wound, salt (with a partitive genitive, “some salt”), barley groats on a fire.^[3][9]
2. To besprinkle, cover by sprinkling, with the dative of what is sprinkled.^[3][9]
3. To shower someone with roses or gold.^[9][3]
4. (of weaving) To work figures into a web; in the passive, of woven figures scattered over a border.^[7][9]
5. (middle, Koine) To sprinkle oneself with ashes.^[3]

Word family

• ἐμπάσσω (empássō)
• καταπάσσω (katapássō)
• ἐπιπάσσω (epipássō)
• παστός (pastós)
• πάσμα (pásma)
• χρυσόπαστος (khrusópastos)
• κατάπαστος (katápastos)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
6. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
7. ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
8. ^ Autenrieth, Georg (1891), A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, tr. Robert P. Keep, New York: Harper and Brothers
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
10. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
11. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
12. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft