πλέω

Forms

πλέω (pléō) ^[1] Epic πλείω, Epic and Ionic πλώω, future πλεύσομαι, later πλευσοῦμαι and πλεύσω, aorist ἔπλευσα, perfect πέπλευκα.^[2][3] Homer uses only the present, imperfect and future.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *pléwō,^[1] inherited from Proto-Indo-European *plew- (“to sail, flow, swim”), a primary thematic present of a root that LIV glosses “to swim, float”.^[4][1][5] The ⟨ϝ⟩ was lost between vowels, but before a consonant it remains as the ⟨υ⟩ of a diphthong, as in the future stem ⟨πλευσ-⟩.^[1]

Cognate with Latin pluit (“it rains”) and English float.^[4][1] The derivative πλοῖον (ploîon, “ship”) matches Old Norse fley (“ship”), and πλόος (plóos, “voyage”) matches Tocharian B plewe (“ship”).^[4] πλύνω (plúnō, “to wash”) belongs to the same root.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it means to sail, of men and of ships; the Ionic πλώω is used of armour and corpses floating in a river.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Herodotus uses it of a floating island and Thucydides of goods carried by sea.^[2][3] Sophocles and Demosthenes speak of the city as a ship that sails upright, on an even keel.^[2][3] It was very often used with prefixes, and it gave the nouns πλόος (plóos) and πλοῖον (ploîon).^[4] In the New Testament it is the ordinary verb for travelling by sea, as in Luke and Acts.^[7]

Medieval vernacular Greek had a form πλέγω with an aorist έπλεξα, which some dialects keep.^[8] Modern Greek πλέω (pléo) is a learned continuation of the ancient verb.^[9][6]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for sailing and, in the Ionic form, for floating.^[2][3]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of a floating island.^[2][3]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it of the state as a ship on an even keel.^[2][3]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides uses it of goods carried by sea.^[2][3]
• 1st century AD – Luke and Acts use it for travelling by sea.^[7]
• Medieval Greek – The vernacular has the form πλέγω.^[8]
• Modern Greek – Modern Greek πλέω (pléo) continues it as a learned word.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sail, travel by sea (of people and ships).^[2][3][7]
2. To sail over (a sea); to make (a voyage).^[3]
3. (of goods) To be carried by sea.^[2][3]
4. To float, swim.^[2][3]
5. (figurative, of a city as a ship) To sail upright, on an even keel.^[2][3]

Word family

• ἄπλοια (áploia)
• πλοῖον (ploîon)
• πλόος (plóos)
• πλωτήρ (plōtḗr)
• πλωτικός (plōtikós)
• πλωτός (plōtós)
• πλώω (plṓō)
• ἀναπλέω (anapléō)
• ἀποπλέω (apopléō)
• διαπλέω (diapléō)
• εἰσπλέω (eispléō)

Related words

• πλύνω (plū́nō)
• English float

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ a b c d e 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
5. ^ Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
6. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
7. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b 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