Etymologically
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σκέπτομαι

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /skép.to.mai̯/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈscep.to.mɛ/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈscep.to.me/[1]

Forms

σκέπτομαι (sképtomai) [1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *speḱ- (“to look at, observe”), as a present with the suffix *-ye-.[2][1] The first two consonants changed places (metathesis), so that *spek- became *skep-.[2][1] Chantraine suggests that the change may be due to linguistic taboo.[3] The present corresponds exactly to Latin speciō (“to look at”), and the aorist to the Latin perfect spexī.[2][3]

The Indo-European root noun meaning “spy” has not survived in Greek; its place was taken by the o-grade noun σκοπός (skopós, “watcher, spy; target”), and the o-grade verb σκοπέω (skopéō) became its iterative.[2] In Attic, that verb supplied the present and imperfect, and σκέπτομαι the other tenses.[2][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is a verb of looking: the Iliad uses it of a warrior watching out for the whizz of arrows (16.361) and of looking about to see whether someone can be found (17.652), and the Odyssey of turning one's eyes towards a ship (12.247).[6][4] Beekes glosses its early sense as “to look around, spy”.[2]

Semantic evolution

Babiniotis notes that σκέπτομαι differed from βλέπω (blépō) and ὁράω (horáō) in expressing an attentive, searching look, and that this is why it came to mean “to reflect, think”.[7] In the 5th century BC it means to inspect a thing or person, and then to examine a matter in the mind, often with an indirect question (“consider whether…”);[5][4] the perfect could mean “to have thought out” a plan or speech, and was also used in a passive sense, “to have been considered”.[5][4]

Its derivatives include σκέψις (sképsis, “examination, inquiry”) and σκεπτικός (skeptikós, “inquiring”), and in Hellenistic and later Greek the plural of the adjective named the members of a philosophical school, the Sceptics.[2] In the Septuagint the future and aorist serve as tenses of σκοπέω, meaning to look out for or select a person.[8]

Medieval vernacular Greek used it for seeing and perceiving.[9] The word continues as Modern Greek σκέφτομαι (skéftomai, “to think”), and the form σκέπτομαι (sképtomai) is a learned borrowing from the ancient verb.[1][9]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad uses it of looking out for the whizz of arrows.[6][4]
  • 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus has “look well at the lock of hair” in the Libation Bearers (229).[4][10]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of examining corpses (3.37).[4][10]
  • 5th century BC – Sophocles, Euripides and Thucydides use it of considering a matter in the mind.[5][10]
  • 4th century BC – Demosthenes and Aristotle use the perfect in a passive sense, “to have been considered”.[5][10]
  • 3rd–2nd century BC – The Septuagint uses it for looking out for and selecting a person (Genesis 41:33).[8]
  • Modern Greek – It survives as σκέφτομαι, “to think”.[1]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To look attentively, look about; to watch for something.[5][6]
  2. To catch sight of, see.[5]
  3. To look at closely, inspect a thing or person; to examine what is the case.[5][4]
  4. To consider, reflect on something; to inquire.[5][4]
  5. To decide after consideration, resolve to do something.[5]
  6. (perfect) To have seen or detected; to have thought out a course of action or a speech.[5] (passive) to have been considered.[5][4]
  7. (Septuagint) To look out for, select.[8]

Word family

  • ἀνασκέπτομαι (anasképtomai)
  • ἀξιόσκεπτος (axióskeptos)
  • ἄσκεπτος (áskeptos)
  • διασκέπτομαι (diasképtomai)
  • ἐπισκέπτομαι (episképtomai)
  • εὔσκεπτος (eúskeptos)
  • κατασκέπτομαι (katasképtomai)
  • σκέμμα (skémma)
  • σκεπτέον (skeptéon)
  • σκεπτικός (skeptikós)
  • σκέψις (sképsis)
  • σκόπελος (skópelos)
  • σκοπεύω (skopeúō)
  • σκοπέω (skopéō)
  • σκοπή (skopḗ)
  • σκοπιά (skopiā́)
  • Latin speciō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 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 Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  6. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  7. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  8. ^ a b c Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
  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 c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge