προπίνω

Forms

προπῑ́νω (propī́nō) ^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek προ- (pro-, “before”) + πίνω (pī́nō, “to drink”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Anacreon in the 6th century BC uses it of draining a cup in one draught, and the iambic poet Hipponax of drinking a toast.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

At a Greek drinking party the one who “drank before” another drank to that person's health and then passed the cup on to him, a custom Athenaeus describes.^[2][3] Pindar's seventh Olympian ode speaks of a bowl given to a son-in-law by the man who drinks to him.^[3][2] Xenophon and Plutarch tell of cups filled, drunk to someone and then given to him as a present.^[3][2]

From this custom of giving the cup the verb came to mean “make a present of”, and then, with blame, “give away carelessly” or “sell out”: Demosthenes accuses men of giving away liberty to Philip as a drinking-present, and Euripides and Plutarch use it of betraying allies or a country.^[3][2] The Hippocratic writers and later authors also use it in a plain sense, “to drink first”.^[3]

It was borrowed as Latin propīnō (“to drink to one's health; to give”), which passed into Italian, Spanish and Catalan, and into English as propine.^[1][4] Modern Greek προπίνω (propíno) is a formal learned word for proposing a toast.^[5]

Timeline

• 6th century BC – Anacreon uses it of draining a cup and of making a gift, and Hipponax uses it of drinking a toast.^[2][3]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it of a father drinking to his son-in-law.^[3][2]
• 5th century BC – Euripides uses it of betraying or sacrificing allies.^[2]
• 4th century BC – Demosthenes uses it of giving away liberty to Philip.^[3][2]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it of a cup offered with a toast and given as a present.^[3][2]
• Modern Greek – It is a formal word meaning to drink a toast.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To drink up, drain a cup; in the passive, of a cup, to be drained.^[3][2]
2. To drink first, before another person.^[3]
3. To drink to someone's health, toast or pledge him, usually handing him the cup afterwards.^[3][2]
4. To give the cup as a present to the person toasted; hence to make a present of something.^[3][2]
5. (figurative) To give away carelessly, betray, sacrifice one's country or allies.^[2][3]

Word family

• πρόποσις (próposis)
• πρόπομα (própoma)

Related words

• πίνω (pī́nō)
• μεταπίνω (metapínō)
• Latin propīnō
• English propine

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
5. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki