πλανάω

Forms

πλᾰνάω (planáō) ^[1] Future πλανήσω, aorist ἐπλάνησα; middle and passive future πλανήσομαι or πλανηθήσομαι, aorist ἐπλανήθην, perfect πεπλάνημαι.^[2][3][4] Epic third person plural πλανόωνται (Homer) and Doric aorist participle πλαναθείς (Pindar).^[3][4]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[2][5] Beekes suggests, with hesitation, a thematized nasal present Proto-Indo-European *pl-néh₂-ti of the root *pleh₂- (“broad, flat”), the root of Latin plānus (“flat”), but he finds the meanings very hard to reconcile.^[2][1] Babiniotis likewise holds that the link with this root and with the Latin adjective cannot be proved.^[5] The meaning is very close to that of πλάζω (plázō, “to make wander”), but a formal connection is hard to see.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer has it once, in the passive, in the Iliad: ἵπποι δὲ πλανόωνται ἀνὰ δρόμον, “and his horses wander about the course”.^[4][6][5]

Semantic evolution

After Homer it became the usual prose verb for wandering, beside the poetic πλάζω (plázō).^[4] The active means to make someone wander: Aeschylus uses it of a gadfly driving someone hither and thither.^[3][7] The passive means to wander or stray, to roam over a country, and in Plato and Aristotle it is said of the planets, the “wandering” stars.^[4] Herodotus and Plato also use it of wandering from the subject in speech, of acting irregularly, and of being at a loss.^[4]

The sense “lead astray, mislead, deceive” appears in Sophocles and Plato.^[4][3] It became the main sense in the Septuagint and the New Testament, where people are led astray from the right way, and the passive means to be deceived or to go wrong.^[8][7][9]

Latin borrowed from this family plānus (“vagabond”), planētae (“planets”) and implānō (“to lead astray”).^[2] The verb survives in Modern Greek as πλανώ (planó), “to mislead”, and in the passive “to wander; to be mistaken”.^[10][5]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses the passive of horses wandering about the course.^[4][6]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses the active of driving someone to wander, and Pindar the passive of missing the right moment.^[4][3]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of wandering in a story and of being at a loss, and Sophocles of misleading.^[4][3]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses the passive of the planets.^[4]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it of leading people astray and deceiving them.^[7][9]
• Modern Greek – It survives as πλανώ (planó), “to mislead; to wander”.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cause to wander; to drive hither and thither.^[4][3]
2. To mislead, lead astray, deceive.^[4][3][7]
3. To lead away from the subject in talking.^[4]
4. (passive) To wander, stray, roam; of the planets, to move as wandering stars; of reports, to travel abroad.^[4][3]
5. (passive) To wander in speaking, digress.^[4]
6. (passive) To act irregularly or with variation; to be unsettled.^[4]
7. (passive) To be in doubt, be at a loss.^[4]
8. (passive, New Testament) To be deceived, go astray, be mistaken.^[7][9]

Word family

• ἀποπλανάω (apoplanáō)
• πλάνη (plánē)
• πλάνημα (plánēma)
• πλάνης (plánēs)
• πλάνησις (plánēsis)
• πλανήτης (planḗtēs)
• πλανητός (planētós)
• πλανύττω (planúttō)
• πλάνιος (plánios)
• πλάνος (plános)
• πλανώδης (planṓdēs)

Related words

• πλάζω (plázō)
• Latin plānus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
6. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
9. ^ a b c United Bible Societies (2023), UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (revised Louw–Nida semantic domains), open-licence ed.
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki