σέλινον

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /sé.liː.non/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈse.li.non/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈse.li.non/^[1]

Forms

σέλῑνον (sélīnon) n (genitive σελῑ́νου); second declension^[1] Aeolic σέλιννον (sélinnon) (grammarians).^[2][3] Mycenaean Greek se-ri-no.^[2][4][1]

Etymology

It has no acceptable etymology and is probably a foreign word, like κύμινον (kúminon) and ῥητίνη (rhētínē).^[2][4] Beekes marks it as possibly Pre-Greek, from Pre-Greek.^[2][4][1]

Strömberg connected it with σέλμα (sélma) “deck plank” and σελίς (selís) “crossbeam”, after the coarse hollow stalk.^[2][4] Furnée compared Mycenaean Greek sa-ri-nu-wo-te, which would point to a form *σάλινον and so to a Pre-Greek origin.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Mycenaean tablets have se-ri-no.^[2][4] In Homer the plant, probably water-parsley or wild celery, grows in marshy ground (Iliad 2.776, Odyssey 5.72).^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

Herodotus mentions its seed, and Theophrastus and Dioscorides describe the plant.^[3] It was mostly planted in garden borders, hence the proverb in Aristophanes “you are not even in the celery or the rue yet”, of something scarcely begun.^[3] Its leaves were woven into garlands (Anacreon, Theocritus), above all the victors' crowns at the Isthmian and Nemean games (Pindar).^[3][6] Such garlands were also hung on tombs, so that someone dangerously ill was said to “need the celery” (Plutarch).^[3] Photius and Hesychius record it for the female genitals.^[3][7][2]

The compound πετροσέλινον (petrosélinon) “rock celery” (Dioscorides) was borrowed as Latin petroselīnum, and through Medieval Latin petrosilium it gave German Petersilie.^[2] The river and town name Σελινοῦς (Selinoûs) is derived from the plant.^[2] Medieval Greek used it for celery as a vegetable and a medicine and for the victors' wreath at Nemea, and it continues as Modern Greek σέλινο (sélino).^[8][1] English celery came in the 1660s through French céleri, said to be from Lombard seleri, from Late Latin selinon.^[9]

Timeline

• Mycenaean – se-ri-no on the Linear B tablets.^[2][4]
• Homer – the plant grows in marshy meadows.^[5][3]
• 6th century BC – Anacreon mentions celery garlands.^[3][10]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar names the celery crowns of the Isthmian and Nemean games.^[3][10]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus mentions its seed.^[3][10]
• 1st century AD – Dioscorides has πετροσέλινον, “rock celery”.^[2][10]
• 1660s – English celery, through French.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Wild celery, Apium graveolens.^[3][6][2]
2. (plural) A garland of celery, especially the prize at the Nemean and Isthmian games.^[6][3]
3. (with ἄγριον) Wild celery, a name of several other plants.^[3]
4. (Photius) The female genitals.^[3][2]

Word family

• πετροσέλινον (petrosélīnon)
• Σελινοῦς (Selīnoûs)

Related words

• Latin petroselīnum
• English celery

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 n o Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
6. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
8. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge