Etymologically
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σκάπτω

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /skáp.tɔː/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈskap.to/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈskap.to/[1]

Forms

σκᾰ́πτω (skáptō) [1]

Etymology

The origin is disputed.[2][3] The stem may be ⟨σκαπ-⟩, with the aspirate of ⟨σκαφ-⟩ taken from verbs such as θάπτω (tháptō), or ⟨σκαφ-⟩, with ⟨σκαπ-⟩ before a voiceless consonant.[2][3] With ⟨σκαπ-⟩, Latin scapulae (“shoulder blades”) has been compared, if it once meant a shovel.[2][3] With ⟨σκαφ-⟩, it would match scabō (“to scratch”), Old High German scaban (“to shave, scrape”) and Russian скобель (skobelʹ, “spokeshave”), from Proto-Indo-European *skabʰ- (“to scratch, scrape”); words like σκάφη (skáphē, “trough”) and σκάφος (skáphos, “hull”) fit this sense of hollowing out better than “to dig”.[2][3][4][1]

Beekes rejects the older comparisons with forms in -e- (such as κόπτω (kóptō)) and with σκήπτω (skḗptō).[2] He holds that κάπετος (kápetos, “ditch”) and other forms with ⟨σκαπ-⟩ may be Pre-Greek, and that the root itself was borrowed from a European substrate language.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record is in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, of hoeing round plants.[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Greek it means to dig, to hoe the ground for cultivation, to dig a trench, and to break rocks or a door with a pick.[6][5] The compound κατασκάπτω (kataskáptō) meant to raze a city to the ground.[2] Aristophanes has the saying “I don't know how to dig”, which Luke's Gospel echoes; digging was the hardest kind of labour.[8][5][8]

Medieval vernacular Greek had many forms of the verb, some of which survive in the dialects.[9] Modern Greek σκάβω (skávo, “to dig”) was remade from the aorist stem ⟨σκαψ-⟩, on the model of τρίβω (tríbo), έτριψα (étripsa).[10]

Timeline

  • 6th century BC – The Homeric Hymn to Hermes uses it of hoeing vines.[5][7]
  • 5th century BC – Thucydides uses it of digging a trench.[6][7][11]
  • 5th century BC – Euripides uses it of breaking a door with a pick.[6][11]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes has the saying “I don't know how to dig”.[5][11]
  • New Testament – In Luke's Gospel, a man says he is not strong enough to dig.[8]
  • Modern Greek – σκάβω (skávo) continues it with a new present.[10][9]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To dig.[6][5]
  2. To dig out, excavate: a trench, a pit.[6]
  3. To dig ground for cultivation; to hoe plants.[6][5]
  4. To break rocks or a door with a pick.[6]

Word family

  • ἀποσκάπτω (aposkáptō)
  • κατασκάπτω (kataskáptō)
  • σκάμμα (skámma)
  • σκαπάνη (skapánēs)
  • σκαπτήρ (skaptḗr)
  • σκαφεύς (skapheús)
  • σκάφη (skáphē)
  • ὑποσκάπτω (huposkáptō)
  • νεοσκαφής (neoskaphḗs)
  • σκαπτός (skaptós)
  • σκάφος (skáphos)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 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. ^ Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  7. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  11. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge