Etymologically
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πέκω

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /pé.kɔː/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈpe.ko/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈpe.ko/[1]

Forms

πέκω (pékō) [1] The Mycenaean word pe-ki-ti-ra₂ “female carders” (or “shearers”), from the same verb.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *peḱ- (“to pluck, card”), as a thematic present.[3][4][1] It is cognate with Lithuanian pèšti (“to pluck, pull out”); the Greek variant πεκτέω (pektéō) goes with Latin pectō (“to comb”) and perhaps Old High German fehtan (“to fight”), if that first meant “to pluck each other”.[3] Beekes finds attractive Pinault's view that these forms come from a reduplicated *pe-pḱ- and that the word for “comb”, κτείς (kteís), is related.[3] The noun πέκος (pékos) “fleece” matches Latin pecus (“small cattle, sheep”) exactly.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Iliad the middle is used of a woman combing her hair, and in the Odyssey the active of carding wool.[5][6]

Semantic evolution

Hesiod uses it of shearing sheep, and Theocritus has the middle of sheep having their wool shorn.[5][6] Simonides and Aristophanes played on the sense when the wrestler Krios, “Ram”, was “shorn”, that is, beaten.[5][6] The verb is rare: the GLAUx corpus counts only a handful of occurrences.[7]

Timeline

  • Mycenaean – The tablets of Pylos record women called pe-ki-ti-ra₂, “carders”.[2]
  • Homer – The Iliad uses the middle of combing one's hair, the Odyssey the active of carding wool.[5][6]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it of shearing sheep.[5][8]
  • 6th–5th century BC – Simonides uses it of the wrestler Krios being “shorn”.[5][8]
  • 4th–3rd century BC – Theocritus uses it of shearing.[5][8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To comb or card wool, and in the middle, to comb one's hair.[5][6]
  2. To shear sheep, and in the middle, of sheep, to be shorn of their wool.[5][6]
  3. (figurative) To be “shorn”, beaten, said of the wrestler Krios.[6]

Word family

  • ἀποπέκω (apopékō)
  • ἄπεκτος (ápektos)
  • κτείς (kteís)
  • πεκτέω (pektéō)
  • πέξις (péxis)
  • πόκος (pókos)
  • Latin pectō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Микенско-русский словарь (Mycenaean–Russian dictionary)
  3. ^ a b c d 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
  4. ^ Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge