Etymologically
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σάρδιον

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /sár.di.on/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈsar.ði.on/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈsar.ði.on/[1]

Forms

σᾰ́ρδῐον (sárdion) n (genitive σᾰρδῐ́ου); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is probably formed from Ancient Greek Σάρδεις (Sárdeis) + -ιον (-ion), so that it first meant “the stone from Sardis”, named after one of the places where it was found.[2][3][1] Lewy's derivation from a Hebrew word for red chalk is doubted by Beekes and Frisk,[2][3] and Rosół lists it among the Semitic etymologies he rejects.[4]

It was borrowed into Latin sarda, sardius and in the compound sardonyx.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the 5th and 4th centuries BC: Plato names the stone in the Phaedo, and a fragment of Aristophanes uses the plural for women's jewels.[5][6][2]

Semantic evolution

Theophrastus, in his work On Stones, describes two kinds of it: a translucent red one, called female, which is the carnelian, and a darker translucent brown one, called male, the sard.[5][6] In 4th-century and Hellenistic inscriptions it is a seal cut from the stone.[5][2] Later Greek also used the adjective phrase λίθος σάρδιος and the forms σάρδινος (sárdinos), σαρδόνιον (sardónion) and σαρδώ (sardṓ), and coined σαρδόνυξ (sardónux) for a kind of sardonyx.[6][3]

The Septuagint names it among the precious stones in Exodus and Ezekiel,[7][8] and in the New Testament Revelation compares the one seated on the heavenly throne to jasper and carnelian.[9][5] Medieval Greek also had σαρδίον, with the accent moved to the end, and the word survives as Modern Greek σάρδιο (sárdio).[10][11]

Timeline

  • 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses the plural for women's jewels, and Plato names the stone in the Phaedo.[5][8][12]
  • 4th century BC – An Attic inscription uses it of a seal.[5]
  • 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus distinguishes its red female and brown male kinds.[5][12]
  • 3rd century BC – The Septuagint translation of Exodus names it among precious stones.[7][8]
  • 1st century AD – Josephus and the Book of Revelation use it.[5][9][12]
  • 6th century AD – A form σαρδίον, with the accent moved, is recorded.[10]
  • Modern Greek – It survives as σάρδιο (sárdio).[10][11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Sard, carnelian, a reddish precious stone.[5][13][9]
  2. A seal made of this stone.[5][2]
  3. (in the plural) Women's jewels.[5][6]

Word family

  • σαρδόνυξ (sardónux)
  • Σάρδεις (Sárdeis)
  • Latin sarda
  • Latin sardius
  • Latin sardonyx

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
  8. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  9. ^ a b c 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
  10. ^ a b c Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  11. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  12. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  13. ^ Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press