πίσσα

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /pís.sa/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈpis.sa/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈpis.sa/^[1]

Forms

πῐ́σσᾰ (píssa) f (genitive πῐ́σσης); first declension^[1] Attic πίττα (pítta).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is an old Indo-European name of pitch and resin, from Proto-Indo-European *pik- (“pitch, resin”).^[2][1][4] The oldest form is Latin pix, a root noun.^[2] Greek added the suffix *-yə seen in νῆσσα (nêssa) and μυῖα (muîa), which gave πίσσα, Attic πίττα (pítta).^[2][4] Slavic has a derivative in -l-, Proto-Slavic *pьkъlъ.^[1][2][4] Beekes and Chantraine allow a link with πίτυς (pítus, “pine”).^[2][4]

The Latin word spread as a loan into Germanic, as in Old High German peh, and then into Baltic and Slavic (Lithuanian pìkis).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Iliad a dark storm-cloud is “blacker than pitch”.^[5][6][3]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Greek pitch was used as fuel, to caulk ships and jars and to flavour wine.^[6] Herodotus, Thucydides and Aristophanes have the word.^[6][3] Theophrastus distinguishes raw from boiled pitch, and Dioscorides liquid from dry.^[3] A papyrus of the 3rd century BC uses it of the resin for coating wine-jars.^[3][1] Its compounds include πισσοκοπέω (pissokopéō) “to smear with pitch”, also used for depilation in comedy.^[2][4]

The Septuagint uses it in Isaiah, Daniel and Sirach.^[7] Medieval vernacular Greek kept πίσσα for pitch and tar, and it remains the ordinary Modern Greek word, Modern Greek πίσσα (píssa).^[8][9] Greek also lent it to Georgian, Armenian and Turkish.^[1]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad compares a black cloud to pitch.^[5][3]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus and Thucydides use it of pitch.^[6][3][10]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus distinguishes raw and boiled pitch.^[3][10]
• 3rd century BC – A Zenon papyrus uses it of resin for wine-jars.^[3]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – The Septuagint uses it in Isaiah.^[7]
• Modern Greek – πίσσα is still the word for pitch and tar.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Pitch, used for fuel, for caulking ships and jars, and to flavour wine.^[3][6]
2. (figurative) A byword for blackness.^[6]
3. Resin for treating wine-jars.^[3][1]

Word family

• πισσήρης (pissḗrēs)
• πιττάκιον (pittákion)
• πίσσινος (píssinos)
• πισσόχριστος (pissókhristos)

Related words

• πίτυς (pítus)
• Latin pix

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 h i j k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e 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 Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
6. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
8. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge