πράσον

Forms

πρᾰ́σον (práson) n (genitive πρᾰ́σου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is traditionally taken as inherited from Proto-Indo-European *pr̥so- (“leek”), the same word as Latin porrum (“leek”).^[2][3][4][1] The /s/ kept between the resonant and the vowel recalls δασύς (dasús, “thick, hairy”) beside dēnsus.^[2][3] Beekes, however, thinks the meaning may point to a substrate word, and a Pre-Greek origin would explain the /s/.^[2][1] Frisk finds factual grounds for a borrowing from a common source, and van Beek, with Frisk, Chantraine and Beekes, doubts the Indo-European etymology, because the word could have spread round the Mediterranean with the plant.^[3][5] Babiniotis also suggests that the Greek and Latin words are parallel loans from one source.^[6]

A Semitic source, Akkadian karašu (“leek”), was proposed by Lagarde, but Rosół lists it among the rejected Semitic etymologies.^[7] Van Beek reports that Kroonen, in unpublished work, again derives the Greek and Latin words from a Near Eastern source, comparing also Sumerian garaš and Hittite kiruša-, with an initial labiovelar in the Greek.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word itself first appears in Attic Old Comedy, in Chionides and in Aristophanes' Frogs (621), and in the Hippocratic writers, but its derivative πρασιά (prasiá, “garden bed”), properly a bed of leeks, is already in the Odyssey.^[5][4][3][8]

Semantic evolution

Theophrastus uses it for the leek and also for leek-like seaweeds, the grass-wrack Posidonia and a kind of Laminaria.^[4][9] From it come the colour words πράσινος (prásinos, “leek-green”) (Aristotle, Septuagint), used later of the Green faction in the circus, and πράσιος (prásios).^[2][9] The Septuagint has the word once, in Numbers.^[10]

Medieval vernacular Greek has πράσο(ν), the leek.^[11] It survives as Modern Greek πράσο (práso), an inherited, not a learned word.^[12][6] The Greek word was borrowed into Old Church Slavonic, Armenian and Georgian, and the Modern Greek form into Ottoman Turkish.^[1]

Timeline

• Homer – The Odyssey has the derivative πρασιά (prasiá), “garden bed”.^[5][2]
• 5th century BC – Chionides and Aristophanes use it for the leek, and the Hippocratic writers prescribe it.^[4][8][13]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses the colour adjective πράσινος (prásinos).^[2][9][13]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus also uses it for leek-like seaweeds.^[4][13]
• 1st century AD – Dioscorides names a headed leek.^[4][13]
• 12th–17th century – Vernacular texts use it in the form πράσο(ν).^[11]
• Modern Greek – It survives as πράσο (práso), “leek”.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. The leek, Allium porrum.^[4][14][2]
2. A leek-like seaweed: grass-wrack, Posidonia oceanica, or a kind of Laminaria.^[4][9]

Word family

• πρασιά (prasiá)
• πράσινος (prásinos)
• πράσιον (prásion)
• πρασοειδής (prasoeidḗs)
• ἀμπελόπρασον (ampelóprason)

Related words

• Latin porrum

Usage notes

A comic fragment says that the purse of lovers is tied with a leaf of leek.^[4] Modern Greek says “to cut something like a leek” for cutting it very easily.^[12]

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 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d van Beek, Lucien (2022), The Reflexes of Syllabic Liquids in Ancient Greek: Linguistic Prehistory of the Greek Dialects and Homeric Kunstsprache, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
7. ^ Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
8. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
9. ^ a b c d 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
10. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
11. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
12. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
13. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
14. ^ Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press