πετάννυμι

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /pe.tán.nyː.mi/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /peˈtan.ny.mi/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /peˈtan.ny.mi/^[1]

Forms

πετᾰ́ννῡμῐ (petánnūmi) ^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *peth₂- (“to spread out”).^[2][3][1] The aorist stem ⟨πετα-⟩, the old nasal present πίτνημι (pítnēmi) and the perfect stem ⟨πεπτα-⟩ all point to a root Proto-Indo-European *p(e)th₂-; the present πετάννυμι was made later on the model of the aorist, as σκεδάννυμι (skedánnumi) was.^[2][4]

Cognate with Latin pateō (“to be open”), patulus (“spread out”) and the nasal present pandō (“to spread out”), with Oscan patensíns (“they might open”), and with Old English fæþm (“embrace, fathom”).^[2][1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it means to spread out: sails to the wind, clothes on the shore to dry, and both arms, of a swimmer or of a man reaching towards his comrades.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

Homer also has a figurative use, to “spread” or lift up someone's heart, and a passive perfect “to be spread on all sides”, said of sunlight, of a cloudless sky and of gates thrown wide open.^[5][6] The simple verb is rare outside the aorist and the perfect passive, and Attic prose prefers the compounds with ἀνα-, δια-, κατα- and περι-.^[5][4]

Later poets and prose writers used the participle of the open sea and of fleeces spread out.^[5][6] From the same root come πέταλον (pétalon) “leaf, metal plate” and πέτασος (pétasos); πέταλον lives on in Modern Greek πέταλο (pétalo), now chiefly a horseshoe.^[4][7]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and Odyssey use it of spreading sails, clothes and arms, and of gates standing open.^[5][8]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus quotes an oracle with a perfect passive of the compound ἐκπετάννυμι (ekpetánnumi).^[5][4]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theocritus uses it of a host opening his house to guests.^[5][6]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Aratus uses the perfect participle of the open sea.^[5]
• 1st century BC – Diodorus has the new active perfect διαπεπέτακα (diapepétaka).^[5][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To spread out, unfold: sails, clothes, nets.^[5][6]
2. To stretch out the hands or arms, in swimming, greeting or entreaty.^[5][6]
3. To throw open doors or a house.^[5][6]
4. (figurative) To lift up or elate someone's heart.^[5][6]
5. (passive) To be spread all around; of doors, to stand wide open.^[5][6]

Word family

• πέταλον (pétalon)
• πέτασος (pétasos)
• πέταυρον (pétauron)

Related words

• πίτνημι (pítnēmi)
• Latin pateō
• English fathom

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
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 c d e f g h i j k l m n o Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
8. ^ Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son