Etymologically
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πλήρης

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /plɛ̌ː.rɛːs/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈpli.ris/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈpli.ris/[1]

Forms

πλήρης (plḗrēs) m or f (neuter πλῆρες); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁- (“to fill”), the root of πίμπλημι (pímplēmi, “to fill”).[2][1][3] Beekes traces the formation itself to the parent language, as *pleh₁-r-, which is also seen in Old Armenian լիր (lir, “fullness”) and Latin plērus (“for the greater part”), with plērīque (“most”).[2][4] Chantraine thinks its s-stem inflection is secondary, perhaps modelled on the compounds in -πληθής (-plēthḗs), and that it rests on an older *πλῆρος (*plêros).[4]

The Etymologicum Magnum derived it from πολύς (polús, “much”), shortened, or from πλεῖος (pleîos, “full”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Sappho uses it of the full moon.[6][7] In the 5th century BC it is found in Aeschylus, Herodotus and Thucydides.[6][8]

Semantic evolution

With a genitive it means “full of”: Herodotus has a city full of houses, Aeschylus a mist full of tears.[6] Sophocles also uses it for “satisfied, sated”.[6][9] Used alone it is said of a swollen river and of the full moon, and it comes to mean complete, entire.[6] A “full” voting pebble, unlike a pierced one, was solid, in Aeschines and Aristotle's Constitution of the Athenians.[6] Doctors describe wine and the pulse as full.[6]

The phrase ἐκ πλήρους means “in full” in inscriptions and papyri, and in later Greek the word was often left undeclined, especially of payments made in full.[6][10] The Septuagint has “full of days” of the old,[11] and the New Testament uses it for what is filled or full.[12] Its derivatives include πληρόω (plēróō, “to fill, fulfil”) and the compound πληροφορέω (plērophoréō, “to satisfy fully, assure”), common in the Septuagint and New Testament.[4]

Modern Greek πλήρης (plíris) is a learned borrowing of the ancient word; its sense “complete” follows French plein and complet.[13]

Timeline

  • 7th–6th century BC – Sappho uses it of the full moon.[6][7][14]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus has a city “full of houses” and a swollen river.[6][14]
  • 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it for “sated”.[6][14]
  • 4th century BC – Aeschines and Aristotle use it of the solid voting pebble.[6][14]
  • Septuagint – It has “full of days” (Genesis 25:8).[11]
  • 2nd century BC – A papyrus has ἐκ πλήρους, “in full”, of rents.[6]
  • Modern Greek – πλήρης is a learned word, “full, complete”.[13]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Full of something, filled with; polluted by.[6][9]
  2. Satisfied, sated.[6]
  3. Full, of a swollen river or of the full moon.[6]
  4. Complete, entire; ἐκ πλήρους, in full.[6]
  5. Solid, of a voting pebble, as opposed to a pierced one.[6]
  6. Full-bodied, of wine; full, of the pulse.[6]

Word family

  • πληρόω (plēróō)
  • πλήρωμα (plḗrōma)
  • πληρότης (plērótēs)
  • πληροφορέω (plērophoréō)
  • πληροφορία (plērophoríā)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b 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. ^ Heggarty, Paul, et al. (2023), Indo-European Cognate Relationships (IE-CoR), Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, https://iecor.clld.org
  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. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  8. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  9. ^ a b Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  10. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  11. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
  12. ^ 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
  13. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  14. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge