πλήσσω

Forms

πλήσσω (plḗssō) ^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂k- (“to strike”), beside a variant *pleh₂g- of the same root.^[2][1] The verb looks like a continuation of *plāk-ye-, but Beekes thinks its κ arose secondarily, since the noun πληγή (plēgḗ, “blow”) has γ, and so prefers *plh₂g-ye-.^[2] Both variants have cognates: with the voiceless consonant Lithuanian plókis (“blow, stroke”), with the voiced one Latin plangō (“to beat; to bewail”), which has a nasal infix, and Old English flōcan (“to slap”).^[2][3] plàkti (“to beat, chastise”) can only be related indirectly, through a secondary ablaut.^[2][1] Wiktionary adds Dutch vloeken (“to curse”).^[1]

Wiktionary also counts πλάζω (plázō) as a cognate, but Beekes doubts that it is related.^[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is the verb for delivering a blow, to strike a person or a part of the body with the hand, a staff or a weapon, and the passive is used of being struck by lightning.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

In Attic the present is used only in compounds, and the simple verb borrowed its future and aorist from πατάσσω (patássō) or παίω (paíō), as the Septuagint also does; the Attic form is πλήττω.^[6] The compounds have their own senses: ἐκπλήσσω (ekplḗssō) “to startle”, ἐπιπλήσσω (epiplḗssō) “to rebuke”, and the passive of παραπλήσσω (paraplḗssō) “to go mad”.^[2]

The verb is used of Zeus striking with his thunderbolt (Hesiod), of a rider lashing his horses, of beating one's breast in grief, and in the passive of being bitten by a snake.^[4] In the New Testament period it is used of blows and disasters sent by God.^[7] Medieval vernacular Greek kept πλήσσω, which still lives in Cypriot; the Attic πλήττω was used as a learned form.^[8]

The learned Modern Greek πλήττω (plítto) means “to hit, strike” a target, and in a second use “to be bored”, a sense taken from the popular βαριέμαι (variémai), which was associated with βαρώ (varó, “to hit”).^[9]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for striking with the hand or a weapon.^[4][5]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it of Zeus striking with lightning (Theogony 855).^[6][4][10]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus has the aorist ἔπληξα.^[6][10]
• 1st century AD – Josephus uses the aorist in the simple verb.^[6][10]
• Modern Greek – The learned πλήττω means “to hit” and “to be bored”.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To strike, beat someone with the hand, the fist, a stick; to kick.^[4][6]
2. To strike someone with a weapon, usually a sword.^[4]
3. (of Zeus) To strike with lightning.^[4] (passive) to be struck by lightning.^[4]
4. (of a rider) To lash horses with a whip.^[4]
5. To beat a part of one's own body, such as the breast, in grief.^[4]
6. (passive) To be wounded or stricken, as by the bite of a snake.^[4]

Word family

• ἁλίπληκτος (halíplēktos)
• ἀμφίπληκτος (amphíplēktos)
• ἄπληκτος (áplēktos)
• διαπλήσσω (diaplḗssō)
• ἐκπλήσσω (ekplḗssō)
• ἐμπλήσσω (emplḗssō)
• ἐπιπλήσσω (epiplḗssō)
• θαλασσόπληκτος (thalassóplēktos)
• καταπλήσσω (kataplḗssō)
• πλήξιππος (plḗxippos)
• φρενόπληκτος (phrenóplēktos)
• χαλκόπληκτος (khalkóplēktos)

Related words

• πληγή (plēgḗ)
• πλῆγμα (plêgma)
• πλήκτης (plḗktēs)
• πληκτίζομαι (plēktízomai)
• πληκτικός (plēktikós)
• πλῆκτρον (plêktron)
• πλήξ (plḗx)
• πλῆξις (plêxis)
• Latin plangō

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 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. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
6. ^ a b c d e Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ 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. ^ 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
10. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge