πέτρος

Forms

πέτρος (pétros) m or f (genitive πέτρου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

Wiktionary and Beekes's Pre-Greek lexicon consider it and πέτρα (pétra, “rock”) Pre-Greek, noting the suffix -ρ-.^[1][2] Wackernagel took the feminine to be an old collective beside πέτρος, as Chantraine and Frisk accept.^[3][4] Frisk calls the pair unexplained, and Chantraine finds none of the proposed etymologies satisfactory: a link with πίπτω (píptō, “to fall”), with Latin impetīgō, with taberna through metathesis, or with πετάννυμι (petánnumi, “to spread out”).^[4][3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is a stone that warriors pick up and throw in battle; the word is found only in the Iliad, never in the Odyssey.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

Pindar and the tragedians use it of stones thrown or used for stoning, and also of stone objects: a discus, a grave column, a person turned to stone.^[8][6] In Sophocles and Euripides it is the image of a hard heart or of insensibility.^[8][9] Euripides and Plato have the proverb “to move every stone”, meaning to leave nothing untried.^[6][8] It remained a poetic word; the usual prose word for a stone is λίθος (líthos).^[6][4] Later poets sometimes make it feminine, under the influence of λίθος.^[6][3]

The name Πέτρος (Pétros), given to the apostle Simon, is the Greek counterpart of the Aramaic name Κηφᾶς (Kēphâs),^[10] and Chantraine derives it from πέτρα.^[3] BDAG notes that it can hardly be shown as a name before Christianity.^[10]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it of stones thrown by warriors.^[7][6]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it of a thrown stone and of a grave column, and Aeschylus of stones thrown in battle.^[6][8][11]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it of stoning and as an image of insensibility, and Euripides has the proverb “to move every stone”.^[6][8][11]
• 5th–4th century BC – Xenophon uses it of stones rolled down on attackers.^[6][11]
• 1st century AD – The Gospels give the name Peter to the apostle Simon, as the counterpart of Aramaic Kephas.^[10][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A stone, a detached piece of rock or a boulder, especially one thrown as a missile or used in stoning.^[6][8]
2. An object made of stone: a discus, a grave column, a petrified person.^[8]
3. (figurative) An image of hard-heartedness or insensibility.^[8][6]
4. (proverb) πάντα κινῆσαι πέτρον, “to move every stone”: to leave nothing untried.^[6][8]
5. A kind of reed.^[6]

Related words

• πέτρα (pétra)
• λίθος (líthos)

Usage notes

LSJ distinguishes it from πέτρα (pétra), a rock or cliff, and Chantraine explains πέτρα as the collective beside it; in late Greek πέτρα itself came to mean a stone.^[6][3][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ a b c d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
10. ^ a b c Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
11. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge