Etymologically
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πῆχυς

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /pɛ̂ː.kʰys/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈpi.çys/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈpi.çys/[1]

Forms

πῆχῠς (pêkhus) m (genitive πήχεως); third declension[1] Doric and Aeolic πᾶχυς (pâkhus).[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *pā́kʰus, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂ǵʰús (“arm, forearm”), the inherited Indo-European name of the arm.[1][2][4] The first aspirate was lost by Grassmann's law.[1]

Cognate with Sanskrit बाहु (bāhú, “arm”), Avestan bāzu (“forearm, arm”), Old Norse bógr (“shoulder”), Old High German buog (“upper foreleg”) and Old English bōg, the source of English bough.[2][4][1][5] Frisk mentions Pisani's view that Latin trifāx (“a missile three cubits long”) is an Oscan loanword containing the same word.[4]

Ancient etymologists derived it from πήγνυμι (pḗgnumi, “to fix”), since the forearm is fixed to the upper arm, or from παχύς (pakhús, “thick”).[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is the elbow (Iliad 21.166), the arm, as when arms are thrown round a son (5.314), and the centrepiece or grip of a bow (11.375, and Odyssey 21.419).[7][5]

Semantic evolution

Plato and Xenophon use it strictly for the forearm, as opposed to the βραχίων (brakhíōn, “upper arm”), and the physicians Rufus and Galen for the ulna.[3][5] By resemblance it named the arms of a lyre (Herodotus) and the beam of a balance (inscriptions).[5]

As a measure it is the cubit, from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, 24 finger-widths or about a foot and a half, and Herodotus distinguishes a “royal” cubit of 27 finger-widths.[5][3][8] Aristophanes uses it for a measuring rod, a cubit-rule.[5][3] The Septuagint uses it constantly for the cubit, from Genesis on, and in the Gospel of Matthew adding a cubit stands for a small span of life.[9][3][5] In Lucian and Philostratus the “cubits” are child figures painted round the Nile, one cubit high, standing for the levels of its flood.[5] DatSemShift records the polysemy “forearm” / “unit of length”.[10]

Medieval Greek kept it as a measure of length.[11] Modern Greek πήχης (píchis) (also πήχυς) is an old measure of length, and colloquial πήχη is the same word.[12][13]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad uses it for the elbow, the arm and the grip of a bow.[7][5]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for a cubit and for the arms of a lyre.[5][14]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it for a cubit-rule, and Plato for the forearm.[5][3][14]
  • 1st century AD – Matthew's Gospel uses it of a small span of life.[3][15]
  • 2nd century AD – Galen uses it for the ulna, and Lucian for the “cubits” painted round the Nile.[5][14]
  • Modern Greek – It survives as πήχης (píchis), an old measure of length.[12]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The forearm; more generally the arm.[3][5][7]
  2. (anatomy) The ulna.[5]
  3. The centrepiece or grip of a bow, joining its two horns.[5][3]
  4. In the plural, the arms of a lyre.[5][3]
  5. The beam of a balance.[5]
  6. A cubit, from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, 24 finger-widths.[5][3][8]
  7. A measuring rod a cubit long, a cubit-rule.[5][3]
  8. (New Testament) A small amount; a short span of time.[3][5]
  9. In the plural, the “cubits”, child figures painted round the Nile for the levels of its flood.[5]

Word family

  • δίπηχυς (dípēkhus)
  • πηχυαῖος (pēkhuaîos)
  • πηχίζω (pēkhízō)
  • πηχύνω (pēkhúnō)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  4. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
  7. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  8. ^ a b Smith, William; Wayte, William; Marindin, G. E., eds. (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 3rd ed., London: John Murray
  9. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
  10. ^ Zalizniak, Anna A., et al. (2024), Database of Semantic Shifts (DatSemShift), Moscow: Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences, https://datsemshift.ru
  11. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  12. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  13. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  14. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  15. ^ 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