πόρνη

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /pór.nɛː/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈpor.ni/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈpor.ni/^[1]

Forms

πόρνη (pórnē) f (genitive πόρνης, diminutive πορνῐ́δῐον); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *pórnē, from Proto-Indo-European *porh₂-neh₂-, an o-grade noun of the root *perh₂- (“to sell”) that also gave πέρνημι (pérnēmi, “to sell”).^[2][1][3] The loss of the laryngeal is usually put down to Saussure's law, which drops a laryngeal after an o-grade, but van Beek explains it as a loss between a liquid and a nasal.^[2]

So it first meant “a woman sold”: LSJ explains that Greek prostitutes were commonly bought slaves, and BDAG recalls that the verb was used of captive women exported for sale.^[4][5][6] The masculine πόρνος (pórnos) is formed from it.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first author LSJ cites is Archilochus, in the 7th century BC, and BDAG and the CGL cite Alcaeus and Hipponax.^[4][6][5][3]

Semantic evolution

In Attic comedy, prose and the orators it is the common word for a prostitute, often of low status, and Lysias and Demosthenes put it beside the word for “human being” as a contemptuous phrase.^[3][1] Its family includes πορνεῖον (porneîon, “brothel”), πορνοβοσκός (pornoboskós, “brothel keeper”) and πορνεύω (porneúō, “to prostitute”), which in the New Testament also means to practise idolatry.^[2]

The Septuagint uses it for a prostitute and, in Isaiah, for a faithless city.^[7] In the New Testament prostitutes are named with tax collectors as the lowest class, Rahab is called by this word, and in Revelation “the great whore” is a power hostile to God and his people.^[5] Wulfila's Gothic Bible renders it with kalkjo.^[8] It was borrowed into Coptic and Armenian.^[9][1] Modern Greek keeps it as a learned word, πόρνη (pórni), a prostitute, and as a term of abuse.^[10]

Timeline

• 7th century BC – Archilochus uses it for a prostitute.^[4][6][11]
• 7th–6th century BC – Alcaeus uses it.^[5][3][11]
• 6th century BC – Hipponax uses it in his iambic poems.^[3][11]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes and Xenophon use it, and the derivative πορνεῖον (porneîon), “brothel”, appears.^[3][2][11]
• 1st century AD – Revelation calls a power hostile to God “the great whore”.^[5]
• AD 825 – A Fayyumic Coptic manuscript has the borrowed word.^[9]
• Modern Greek – It survives as the learned word πόρνη (pórni), “prostitute”.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A prostitute, harlot.^[4][3][5]
2. (Septuagint, New Testament) A city or power unfaithful or hostile to God.^[7][5]

Word family

• πορνίδιον (pornídion)
• πορνεῖον (porneîon)
• πορνεύω (porneúō)
• πορνεία (porneíā)
• πόρνος (pórnos)
• πορνοβοσκός (pornoboskós)

Related words

• πέρνημι (pérnēmi)
• English pornography

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ a b c d Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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
6. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
7. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
8. ^ Streitberg, Wilhelm (1910), Die gotische Bibel, II: Gotisch-griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge