πέος

Forms

πέος (péos) n (genitive πέεος or πέους); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *péhos,^[1] inherited from Proto-Indo-European *pésos (“penis”), a neuter s-stem.^[2][1][3][4] It is identical with Sanskrit पसस् (pásas-, “penis”).^[2][3][4][5]

Cognate with Latin pēnis (“tail, penis”), formed with an n-suffix, and with Hittite pešan- (“man, male”).^[2][4][3] With the o-grade and the popular suffix -θη (-thē), πόσθη (pósthē) has the same meaning.^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in Aristophanes' Acharnians, as a coarse word of comedy.^[5][4][6][7] Babiniotis dates it already to Archilochus, in the 7th century BC.^[8]

Semantic evolution

It remained a colloquial word, frequent in Aristophanes.^[6][7] Comedy also formed πεοίδης (peoídēs) “with a swollen member”, and Lucian πεώδης (peṓdēs).^[4]

Modern Greek πέος (péos) is a learned revival of the ancient word, and it forms new compounds.^[9][8]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it in the Acharnians and other comedies.^[5][6][10]
• 2nd century AD – Lucian uses the derivative πεώδης (peṓdēs).^[4]
• Modern Greek – The word is used again as a learned borrowing from Ancient Greek.^[9][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The penis (a coarse, colloquial word).^[5][6]

Word family

• πεοίδης (peoídēs)
• πεώδης (peṓdēs)

Related words

• πόσθη (pósthē)
• Latin pēnis

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c 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 Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge