πάτος

Forms

πᾰ́τος (pátos) m (genitive πᾰ́του); second declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain; the word is clearly related to πατέω (patéō, “to tread”), but it is not clear which was formed from which.^[1][2] Frisk regarded πάτος “path” as a possible old variant of πόντος (póntos, “sea”), with the verb as its derivative.^[2][3] On that view they are inherited from Proto-Indo-European *pent- (“to go, walk; way”), the source of Sanskrit पन्था (pánthā, “path”) and Proto-Germanic *paþaz (“path”).^[1] Chantraine doubts the link with the word for sea, because πάτος always means a beaten, frequented track, far from the original sense of that family; if it is rejected, neither the noun nor the verb has an etymology.^[3][2] Beekes adds that “way” would not easily yield “to tread”, a word for the movement of the legs.^[2]

The compounds περίπατος (perípatos) and ἀπόπατος (apópatos) are back-formations from compound verbs such as ἀποπατέω (apopatéō), and Babiniotis suggests that πάτος itself may be one, from the simple verb.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is a beaten path and, more widely, the haunts or comings and goings of men: Bellerophon wanders shunning “the path of men”, and in the Odyssey no tread of men disturbs the wild goats of an island.^[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed poetic: Apollonius of Rhodes still speaks of whatever lay “outside the path of men”.^[6] Lucian uses it figuratively of words “off the beaten track”, that is, outlandish.^[6] A papyrus of the 5th century AD uses it for the floor of a bath.^[6] Hesychius glosses it as a trodden public road.^[8]

The sense “bottom” of Modern Greek πάτος (pátos), the bottom of the sea, a well or a vessel, is medieval.^[9] Medieval Greek also had an unrelated πάτος “agreement”, from Venetian pato.^[10]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for a beaten track and the haunts of men.^[5][6][11]
• 3rd century BC – Apollonius of Rhodes uses it of the path of men.^[6][12]
• 2nd century AD – Lucian calls outlandish words “outside the path”.^[6][12]
• 5th century AD – A papyrus uses it for the floor of a bath.^[6]
• Modern Greek – Modern Greek πάτος (pátos) means “bottom”, a sense first found in Medieval Greek.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A trodden or beaten path, a track.^[6][5]
2. The haunts, the coming and going of men.^[5]
3. (figurative, in the phrase “outside the path”) Out of the way, outlandish.^[6]
4. (Byzantine) A floor.^[6]

Word family

• ἀπόπατος (apópatos)

Related words

• πατέω (patéō)
• πόντος (póntos)
• περίπατος (perípatos)

Usage notes

Hesychius also glosses πάτος as “garment of Hera”, a neuter noun used by Callimachus; it has been connected with the root of “to spin” or explained as a back-formation from πατέω, a robe trailing to the feet, and Beekes finds neither convincing.^{[8][2][3][13]} A separate πάτος “nourishment” is referred by Beekes and Chantraine to πατέομαι (patéomai, “to eat, partake of”).^[2][3]

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 e 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. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
5. ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
11. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
12. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
13. ^ Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter