πτέρυξ

Forms

πτέρῠξ (ptérux) f (genitive πτέρῠγος); third declension^[1] Epic dative plural πτερύγεσσι.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek πτερόν (pterón, “feather, wing”), but with a suffix /-ug-/ that has no convincing parallel in Greek: bird names such as ὄρτυξ (órtux, “quail”) are too far off, and the comparisons with words in other Indo-European languages are unconvincing.^[3][1] The noun itself belongs with the verb πέτομαι (pétomai, “to fly”), and Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *péth₂r̥ (“feather”).^[3][1][4] Its relatives elsewhere are Sanskrit पत्त्र (pátra) “wing, feather”, Latin accipiter “hawk” and Old High German fedara “feather”, from the same root with another suffix, and Latin penna (“feather”) has an /n/-suffix.^[3][5][4]

The Etymologicum Magnum derives it from the verb πτερύσσομαι (pterússomai).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

From Homer on it means the wing of a bird, mostly in the plural.^[2][7] The Odyssey and Hesiod use it too.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

Already in the archaic poets the wing was an image: Anacreon, Theognis and Aeschylus speak of wings that carry a person away from danger, and Pindar of the “wings of the Muses” that spread a victor's fame.^[9] Hesiod and the tragic poets give wings to minor gods, and Callimachus uses the word for the flight of a bird watched in augury.^[9][2]

Anything shaped or set like a wing could be called by it.^[2] Aristotle uses it for the fins of fish and the flippers of seals and dolphins, Theophrastus for feathery foliage, and the Hippocratic writers for a lobe of the lung and the soft palate.^[2] It also named the blade of a steering oar, the flaps of a breastplate or of a Doric tunic, the broad edge of a blade, and, in Euripides, a sheltering fold of cloth or of a mother's arms.^[2][9] The same polysemy of “wing” with “fin” and “oar” is recorded in other languages.^[10]

The Septuagint has it for wings, figuratively for the rays of the sun, and for the “ends” of the earth, and the New Testament for the wings of a hen and of the creatures of Revelation.^[11][12] Medieval Greek still used it for a bird's wing, and figuratively for shelter.^[13] In the form πτέρυγα it survives as a learned word; its everyday sense, “wing” of a building or of a party, follows French aile.^[14] The ordinary word for a bird's wing, φτερούγα (fteroúga), comes through medieval πτερούγα from the diminutive πτερύγιον (pterúgion).^[14][15]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for a bird's wing.^[2][7]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it of winged divine beings.^[9][8]
• 6th century BC – Anacreon and Theognis speak of wings that would carry a person away.^[9]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus describes the black wing-tips of the ibis, and Euripides uses it for a sheltering fold.^[2][9]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it for the fins of fish and the flippers of seals.^[2]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for the wings of a hen sheltering its chicks.^[12]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular medieval Greek keeps it for a wing and for protection.^[13]
• Modern Greek – It survives as the learned πτέρυγα (ptéryga), a wing of a building or of a political party.^[14][15]

Meanings

Noun

1. The wing of a bird or another flying creature, usually in the plural.^[2][9]
2. (poetic, figurative) Wings that carry a person or a song far away; the flight of grief or of fame.^[9][2]
3. A winged creature, a bird; a bird's flight as an omen.^[2]
4. Something like a wing: the fin of a fish, the flipper of a seal or dolphin; feathery foliage.^[2]
5. The blade of a steering oar, a rudder; in the plural, oars or sails.^[2]
6. A flap of a breastplate or of a Doric tunic; the broad edge of a blade.^[2][9]
7. (anatomy) A lobe of the lungs; a shoulder blade.^[2]
8. Something that covers or shelters like a wing: a fold of a robe, a mother's embrace.^[2][9]
9. (Septuagint) The farthest edge of the earth.^[11]

Word family

• ἐλαχυπτέρυξ (elakhuptérux)
• μελανοπτέρυξ (melanoptérux)
• πτερυγίζω (pterugízō)
• πτερύγιον (pterúgion)
• πτερυγωκής (pterugōkḗs)
• πτερυγωτός (pterugōtós)
• τανυπτέρυξ (tanuptérux)
• ἀπτέρυγος (aptérugos)
• ἑξαπτέρυγος (hexaptérugos)
• εὐπτέρυγος (euptérugos)
• πτερυγοειδής (pterugoeidḗs)

Related words

• πτερόν (pterón)
• πέτομαι (pétomai)

Usage notes

The ancient grammarians distinguished the accents: Aristarchus wrote πτερύξ, and the Etymologicum Magnum says that πτέρυξ was the whole wing and πτερύξ only its tip.^[2][6]

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 o p q r s Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c 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
4. ^ a b 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. ^ Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ a b Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
8. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
10. ^ Zalizniak, Anna A., et al. (2024), Database of Semantic Shifts (DatSemShift), Moscow: Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences, https://datsemshift.ru
11. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
12. ^ a b 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 Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
14. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
15. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας