πήρα

Forms

πήρᾱ (pḗrā) f (genitive πήρᾱς); first declension^[1] Ionic πήρη (pḗrē).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

Its origin is unexplained.^[2][5] Like θύλακος (thúlakos, “sack”) and σάκκος (sákkos, “sack”) and many other words for containers, it may be a borrowed “travelling word”.^[6][5] Beekes marks it as possibly from Pre-Greek, and Wiktionary also thinks a Pre-Greek origin probable.^[2][1] Furnée compares βηρίδες (bērídes), which Hesychius glosses as a kind of shoe, and περιβαρίδες (peribarídes, “women's shoes”), and mentions Latin pērō (“rawhide boot”).^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Odyssey it is a leather pouch for food, the bag of a beggar.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

In comedy and pastoral poetry it is the bag of beggars and country people.^[4][3] It became part of the Cynic's equipment, the beggar's bag carried with cloak and staff, and the Cynic Crates wrote a piece called Πήρα.^[7] In the Gospels Jesus tells the disciples not to take a bag on their journey;^[7] BDAG suggests the beggar's bag may be meant.^[7] The diminutive πηρίδιον (pērídion) is found in Aristophanes and Menander, and Nicander uses πηρίς (pērís) for the scrotum.^[2] It was borrowed as Latin pēra.^[8]

Timeline

• Homer – The Odyssey uses it for a beggar's leather bag.^[3][4]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it in the Wealth.^[3]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theocritus and Menander use it for a rustic's or beggar's bag.^[4]
• 2nd century BC – Nicander uses the derivative πηρίς (pērís) for the scrotum.^[2]
• 1st century AD – It appears on an ostracon.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A leather bag or pouch for provisions, a knapsack; often a beggar's or rustic's bag, and the Cynic's wallet.^[3][4][7]

Word family

• πηρίδιον (pērídion)
• πηρίς (pērís)

Related words

• Latin pēra

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 g Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d 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
8. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann