παχύς

Forms

πᾰχῠ́ς (pakhús) m (feminine πᾰχεῖᾰ, neuter πᾰχῠ́); first/third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *pəkʰús,^[1] inherited from Proto-Indo-European *bʰénǵʰus (“thick”), from the root *bʰenǵʰ- (“thick; to swell”).^[1][2] Beekes, who reconstructs it as *bʰn̥ǵʰ-u-, calls it an old u-stem adjective.^[3] The Greek form starts from *φαχύς (*phakhús), whose first aspirate was lost by dissimilation before the second.^[4][5]

Cognate with Sanskrit बहु (bahú, “much, many”), Avestan 𐬠𐬄𐬰𐬀𐬵 (bązah) and Hittite panku- (“total”).^[3][1][4] Chantraine rejects a link with Latin pinguis (“fat”), for both form and meaning.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Homer on, meaning thick or stout: a warrior's strong hand, a thick thigh or neck, a massive stone, and blood that is thick and clotted.^[6][7][8]

Semantic evolution

Hesiod uses it of a foot and of tree trunks.^[6][7] Of liquids it meant thick or curdled: Herodotus uses it of a juice that runs thick and black, and the Hippocratic writers of marsh water and urine, and they called certain diseases “thick” because they were thought to come from thickened phlegm.^[6] In Herodotus and Aristophanes “the thick ones” are the men of substance, the wealthy.^[6] Comedy and later prose used it for someone thick-witted and stupid, and a late proverb called a dullard “thicker than mud”.^[6] Aristotle applied it to a thick, heavy sound, as opposed to a thin one, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus to a coarse, heavy style.^[6]

The adjective lived on through Medieval Greek and is still Modern Greek παχύς (pachýs), thick in dimensions, and fat, of people and animals.^[9][10] Science took the form English pachy-, “thick, massive”, from its Latinized form.^[11]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for thick, stout limbs, massive stones and clotted blood.^[6][7]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it of a foot and of tree trunks.^[6][7]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus calls the wealthy “the thick ones” and uses the word of thick liquids.^[6]
• 5th century BC – The Hippocratic writers speak of thick urine and of “thick” diseases.^[6]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it for thick-witted.^[6]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it of a heavy sound, as opposed to a thin one.^[6]
• 1st century BC – Dionysius of Halicarnassus uses it of a coarse, heavy style.^[6]
• Modern Greek – Modern Greek παχύς (pachýs) means thick, and fat of people and animals.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of things, thick, massive, stout.^[6][7]
2. Of persons and animals, solid, sturdy; later fat, well-fed.^[7][6][3]
3. Of liquids, thick, curdled, clotted.^[6]
4. Of sound, thick, deep, as opposed to thin.^[6]
5. Of style, coarse, heavy.^[6]
6. (substantive) οἱ παχέες: men of substance, the wealthy.^[6]
7. Thick-witted, stupid.^[6]

Word family

• πάσσων (pássōn)
• πάχιστος (pákhistos)
• πάχος (pákhos)
• παχύδερμος (pakhúdermos)
• παχίων (pakhíōn)
• παχύνω (pakhū́nō)

Related words

• English pachy-

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
3. ^ a b c 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
4. ^ a b c 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. ^ 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 o p q r s t Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
9. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com