σήπω

Forms

σήπω (sḗpō) ^[1] Doric σάπομαι (Bacchylides); perfect σέσηπα with passive sense, aorist passive ἐσάπην, future σαπήσομαι; the active future σήψω and aorist σῆψαι are rare.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

The origin is unclear.^[3][2] Frisk held it to be an inherited word because of its structure, though isolated in Indo-European.^[5] The alternation of the stem ⟨σηπ-⟩ with ⟨σαπ-⟩ (as in σαπρός (saprós, “rotten”)) has been taken as a sign of Indo-European origin, and LIV reconstructs a root Proto-Indo-European *Kyeh₂p- (“to rot”); but Beekes notes that no cognates are known and that a zero grade of such a root would not give the adjective, so the verb may be Pre-Greek.^[2][1] The old comparisons with Sanskrit क्याकु (kyāku, “mushroom”) and Lithuanian šiùpti (“to putrefy”) are rejected by Beekes and Chantraine.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it occurs in the perfect and the passive, meaning “rot”: the ship timbers of the Achaeans have rotted after nine years at Troy, and Hector's body does not rot.^[6][4]

Semantic evolution

In Herodotus the passive is used of dead bodies and of a wounded thigh that mortifies.^[4][7] The active "make rotten" appears in Aeschylus, of a viper's poison,^[4][7] and Plato uses it figuratively: idleness and stillness rot and destroy.^[4][7] An Athenian inscription of the 5th century BC uses it of soaking hides, and the Hippocratic writers of bringing a sore to suppuration.^[4]

The verb gave σῆψις (sêpsis, “putrefaction”), σηπεδών (sēpedṓn, “decay”) and σηπτικός (sēptikós, “causing rot”).^[2][5] In medieval vernacular Greek it lived on beside new presents built on the aorist, such as σαπαίνω (sapaíno).^[8] Modern Greek keeps the middle σήπομαι (sípome) only as a learned word for "rot".^[9]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it of rotting timbers and of a corpse.^[6][4]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses the passive of dead and mortified flesh, and Aeschylus the active of a viper's poison.^[4][7]
• 5th century BC – An Athenian inscription uses it of soaking hides.^[4]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato says that stillness rots and destroys.^[4][7]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular texts use it alongside σαπαίνω (sapaíno).^[8]
• Modern Greek – Only the learned middle σήπομαι (sípome) survives.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. (active) To make rotten or putrid; to soak hides; in medicine, to bring to suppuration.^[4][7]
2. (active, figurative) To corrupt, to waste.^[4]
3. (passive and perfect) To rot, moulder, of corpses, timber, blood and water; of living flesh, to mortify.^[4][7][6]

Word family

• ἄσηπτος (ásēptos)
• κατασήπω (katasḗpō)
• ἀντισήπω (antisḗpō)
• ἀποσήπομαι (aposḗpomai)
• ἀσαπής (asapḗs)
• διασήπω (diasḗpō)
• ἐκσήπομαι (eksḗpomai)
• ἐνσήπομαι (ensḗpomai)
• εὔσηπτος (eúsēptos)
• περισήπομαι (perisḗpomai)
• συσσήπω (sussḗpō)
• ὑποσήπω (huposḗpō)

Related words

• σαπρός (saprós)
• σηπεδών (sēpedṓn)
• σηπτικός (sēptikós)
• σηπτός (sēptós)
• σήψ (sḗps)
• σῆψις (sêpsis)

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
7. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki