πέδον

Forms

πέδον (pédon) n (genitive πέδου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *pedóm (“footstep, place”),^[1][2][3] a thematic noun formed from the root Proto-Indo-European *ped- (“foot”) of πούς (poús, “foot”), first meaning the place where the foot is set.^[4][2][3]

Cognate with Hittite pedan (“place”), Sanskrit पद (padá, “step, footprint”), Old Armenian հետ (het, “footprint”), Old Norse fet (“step”), Lithuanian pėdà (“footprint”) and Umbrian peřum (“ground”), all from the same Indo-European noun.^[2][4][3][1] The same word is the second element of Latin oppidum (“town”).^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer has only the adverb πέδονδε (pédonde, “to the ground”), in the Iliad.^[4][3][5] The noun itself is first found in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, meaning the ground or earth.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

It remained a word of poetry: Pindar, the tragedians and Aristophanes use it, and the dative πέδῳ means “on the ground” or “to the ground”.^[5][6] It often names a particular place, especially sacred ground, with the name of the place or its god: Bacchylides calls Nemea the ground of Zeus, and in Aristophanes the ground of Pallas is the Acropolis.^[5][6] With a genitive it can stand for the place itself, as “the ground of Europe” in Aeschylus.^[5] A fragment of Euripides speaks of the expanse of heaven.^[6]

Poetry formed the adverbs πέδοι (pédoi, “on the ground”), πεδόθεν (pedóthen, “from the ground”) and πέδοσε (pédose, “to the ground”).^[4][2] The word is the second element of many compounds, such as δάπεδον (dápedon, “floor”), κράσπεδον (kráspedon, “edge, border”), ἔμπεδος (émpedos, “firm”) and later στρατόπεδον (stratópedon, “camp, army”), and πεδίον (pedíon, “plain”) is formed from it.^[4][2][3]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad has the adverb πέδονδε, “to the ground”.^[4][3]
• 6th century BC – The Homeric Hymn to Demeter has the noun, in the dative πέδῳ.^[5][6][7]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it for the ground, and Aeschylus speaks of the ground of the earth and the ground of Europe.^[5][6][8]
• 5th century BC – Bacchylides uses it of Nemea, and Sophocles of the plain of Crisa.^[5][8]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes calls the Acropolis the ground of Pallas.^[5][8]
• 3rd century BC – Apollonius of Rhodes uses it in epic.^[6][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The ground, the surface of the earth; in the dative, “on the ground” or “to the ground”.^[5][6]
2. A particular place or region, especially sacred ground, often with the name of the place or of its god.^[5][6]
3. An expanse, of heaven.^[6]

Word family

• πέδονδε (pédonde)
• πεδόθεν (pedóthen)
• πεδίον (pedíon)
• δάπεδον (dápedon)
• κράσπεδον (kráspedon)
• ἔμπεδος (émpedos)
• στρατόπεδον (stratópedon)

Related words

• πούς (poús)
• πέζα (péza)
• Latin oppidum

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 f Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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