πλήθω

Forms

πλήθω (plḗthō) ^[1] Perfect with present sense πέπληθα, pluperfect ἐπεπλήθει; epic imperfect πλῆθε.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *plḗtʰō,^[1] from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁- (“to fill, become full”).^[1][5] The LIV reconstructs a present with the suffix *-dʰe-, *pléh₁-dʰe-, and compares Old Avestan frādat̰ (“furthers”).^[5] Beekes, however, counts the ⟨θ⟩ of πλῆθος (plêthos), of this verb and of its perfect among presumably young Greek formations, like βρίθω (bríthō) beside βρῖθος (brîthos).^[6] Πάπυρος describes the ending as a present suffix added to the stem of πίμπλημι (pímplēmi, “to fill”), as in νήθω (nḗthō) and πρήθω (prḗthō).^[7]

The root is also in Latin pleō (“to fill”) and Sanskrit पिपर्ति (piparti, “fills”).^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it intransitively, to be full: of rivers in flood, of a river filled with corpses, of tables loaded with food, and of the full moon.^[9][4][2]

Semantic evolution

In Archaic and Classical poetry it kept the sense “to be full”: Hesiod has barns full of food and a river swollen with winter rain, Aeschylus a sea full of wreckage and blood, and Pindar a thronging crowd in the market-place.^[3][2][10] Sappho too speaks of the full moon.^[2][3] In Attic prose it survived only in the phrase “when the agora is full”, that is, in the middle of the morning, used by Thucydides, Plato and Xenophon.^[3][2]

Hellenistic poets used the old perfect πέπληθα with a present sense, as Theocritus of a spring brimming with water.^[2][3] Only later poets, such as Oppian and Quintus of Smyrna, made it transitive, “to fill”.^[2]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it of rivers in flood and of the full moon.^[9][2]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it of barns full of food and of a river swollen with rain.^[3][2][11]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it of the sea full of wreckage, and Pindar of a thronging crowd.^[2][10][11]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides dates events to the time “when the agora is full”.^[3][11]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theocritus uses the perfect πέπληθα of a brimming spring.^[2][11]
• 2nd–3rd century AD – Oppian and Quintus of Smyrna use it transitively, “to fill”.^[2][11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be full, be filled; with the genitive or dative of what fills.^[2][3]
2. Of rivers, to be in flood, be swollen.^[2][3][9]
3. Of the moon, to be full.^[2][3][9]
4. Of a crowd, to throng, gather in numbers.^[3][10]
5. In the phrase πληθούσης ἀγορᾶς, “when the agora is full”: in the middle of the morning.^[3][2]
6. (later poetry) To fill something.^[2]

Word family

• περιπλήθω (periplḗthō)
• ἀναπλήθω (anaplḗthō)

Related words

• πλῆθος (plêthos)
• πληθύνω (plēthū́nō)
• πληθύς (plēthū́s)
• πληθύω (plēthúō)
• πληθώρη (plēthṓrē)
• πίμπλημι (pímplēmi)
• πλήρης (plḗrēs)
• Latin pleō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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 Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ a b Autenrieth, Georg (1891), A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, tr. Robert P. Keep, New York: Harper and Brothers
5. ^ a b Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
8. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
9. ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
10. ^ a b c Slater, William J. (1969), Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: De Gruyter
11. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge