παράσιτος

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /pa.rá.siː.tos/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /paˈra.si.tos/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /paˈra.si.tos/^[1]

Forms

πᾰρᾰ́σῑτος (parásītos) m (genitive πᾰρᾰσῑ́του); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from παρά (pará, “beside”) and σῖτος (sîtos, “grain, food”): originally an adjective, “feeding beside”, one who eats at another's table.^[1][2] Etymonline notes that σῖτος is of unknown origin.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The comic poets Epicharmus and Araros already use it for a parasite, one who eats at another's table and repays him with flattery and jokes.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The parasite became a stock character of comedy: Antiphanes, Alexis and Diphilus wrote plays called Parasite, and Theophrastus describes the type.^[3][4] Lucian wrote a mock treatise on the art of the parasite.^[3][4] It was also an official title, for priests who took their meals at public expense and for one who dined with a superior officer.^[3][1] Hesychius glosses it as “table-shaker”.^[5]

Medieval Greek used it for a sponger and a comic type, perhaps with influence from Italian parassito.^[6] Latin borrowed it as parasītus, and English took parasite in the 1530s for a toady who lives on others.^[2] Modern Greek παράσιτος (parásitos) means living at the expense of others, also of parasitic organisms, a sense taken from French parasite.^[7]

Timeline

• 5th century BC (probably) – Epicharmus uses it for a parasite.^[3]
• 4th century BC – Antiphanes and Alexis write comedies titled Parasite.^[3]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus describes the parasite.^[4]
• 2nd century AD – Lucian writes On the Parasite.^[3]
• 1530s – English borrows parasite.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. One who eats at another's table and repays him with flattery, a parasite, hanger-on.^[3][4]
2. A priest who takes his meals at public expense.^[3][1]
3. One who dines with a superior officer.^[3][1]

Related words

• σῖτος (sîtos)
• Latin parasitus
• English parasite

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
6. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
7. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki