σαρδίνη

Forms

σαρδίνη (sardī́nē) f (genitive σαρδίνης); first declension; also masculine σαρδῖνος (sardînos).^[1][2]

Etymology

It is formed with a suffix from Ancient Greek σάρδα (sárda, “salted fish”), the name of a salted or pickled fish.^[2][3][4] Beekes and Frisk take it to be originally “the Sardinian fish”, named after the place where it was prepared, from the name of Sardinia, Σαρδώ (Sardṓ), and Latin Sardus “Sardinian”.^[2][3] Chantraine agrees that these fish were above all prepared in Sardinia, though he notes the explanation only as a likelihood.^[5] Etymonline cites Klein's doubt that the Greeks could have got fish from as far away as Sardinia at so early a date.^[6]

Latin borrowed both words as sarda and Latin sardina.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The masculine form σαρδῖνος (sardînos) is the earliest: it occurs in a fragment of Aristotle (4th century BC)^[7] and in the fish-writer Epaenetus, quoted by Athenaeus.^[1][2] The feminine σαρδίνη is first found in Galen (2nd century AD), meaning the pilchard or sardine.^[1][7]

Semantic evolution

Chantraine notes that σαρδίνη and σαρδῖνος must have named the sardinella as well as the sardine.^[5] The base word σάρδα (sárda), recorded from the 3rd century BC in Diphilus of Siphnos, was a general name for salted fish, according to Xenocrates a kind of tuna.^[5][1][7]

Through Latin sardina the word reached the modern languages, English sardine among them (early 15th century).^[6] In Modern Greek σαρδίνη is only the learned name of the fish;^[8] the everyday word is Modern Greek σαρδέλα (sardéla), a medieval borrowing of Italian sardella.^[9][10]

Timeline

• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses the masculine σαρδῖνος in a fragment.^[1][7]
• 3rd century BC – Diphilus of Siphnos uses the base word σάρδα (sárda) for a salted fish.^[2][1][7]
• 2nd century AD – Galen uses σαρδίνη for the pilchard or sardine.^[1][7]
• Early 15th century – English borrows the Latin form as sardine.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The pilchard or sardine (Sardina pilchardus), and probably also the sardinella.^[1][5]

Related words

• σάρδα (sárda)
• σαρδῖνος (sardînos)
• Latin sardina
• English sardine

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ Bailly, Anatole (1901), Abrégé du dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
8. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
9. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας