σκαιός

Forms

σκαιός (skaiós) m (feminine σκαιᾱ́, neuter σκαιόν); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *skaiwós, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *skeh₂iwos.^[1][2] Beekes, Frisk and Chantraine all note that it matches Latin scaevus (“left, inauspicious”) in form and meaning, its only exact cognate, and Latin used that word in the language of augury.^[2][3][4] The noun σκαιότης (skaiótēs) and Latin scaevitās were formed separately in each language.^[3][4] Steinbauer, cited by Beekes, takes the word to be the same as a rare homonym meaning “shady” and derives both from the Indo-European word for “shade” seen in σκιά (skiá), and the meaning would have passed from “shaded” to “western”, and “the shaded hand” would have become “the left hand”.^[2] Its rhyming partner for “left” is λαιός (laiós).^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is always the dative σκαιῇ (skaiêi), “with the left hand”, as in the Iliad (1.501).^[5][6] The Odyssey uses it of a headland lying on the left (3.295), and the Iliad names the main gate of Troy the Σκαιαὶ πύλαι, the Scaean Gate.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

Because a Greek diviner faced north, the left side was also the west, and LSJ explains the Scaean Gate as the west gate of Troy;^[5] Chantraine also takes the gate as the western one.^[5][4] The literal sense stayed mostly poetic: Plato uses it once of the left side, and a Delphic inscription of the 2nd century BC has it for “to the left”.^[5][4]

The left being the unlucky side, Ionic and Attic gave the word the senses “ill-omened, mischievous” and, of people, “left-handed, awkward, clumsy, stupid”.^[4][5] Herodotus uses its superlative beside “most unjust”, Pindar says that a thing kept silent is none the worse for it, and the Hippocratic writers speak of clumsy doctors.^[5] In its literal sense it was replaced, like λαιός (laiós), by ἀριστερός (aristerós) and εὐώνυμος (euṓnumos).^[3][4] The same link between “left” and “clumsy” is recorded for other languages in DatSemShift.^[8]

Hesychius glosses it with a whole row of words for “bad”, “boorish”, “harsh” and “unjust”, and finally “left”.^[9] Medieval Greek kept the word, also as σκαίος (skaíos).^[10] In Modern Greek σκαιός (skaiós) is a learned word for a person or manner that is rough and rude.^[11][12]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses the dative for the left hand and names the Scaean Gate of Troy.^[6][5]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Theogony has it of the left hand.^[5][7][13]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it of something harmful or untoward.^[5][13]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus and the Hippocratic writers use it of stupid or clumsy people.^[5][13]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it once in the literal sense of the left side.^[5][4][13]
• 2nd century BC – An inscription from Delphi uses it for “to the left”.^[5][4]
• Modern Greek – σκαιός (skaiós) survives as a learned word meaning “rude, coarse”.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (chiefly poetic) Left, on the left side; in Homer the feminine dative alone means “with the left hand”.^[5][7][6]
2. Western, lying to the west; of a headland, on the left.^[5][7]
3. Unlucky, ill-omened, harmful.^[5][7]
4. Of people, awkward, clumsy, stupid; of speech or conduct, boorish, out of place.^[5][7]

Word family

• σκαιότης (skaiótēs)
• σκαιουργέω (skaiourgéō)

Related words

• λαιός (laiós)
• σκιά (skiá)
• Latin scaevus

Usage notes

Beekes and Frisk record a second, rare adjective of the same spelling meaning “shady”, which Steinbauer would identify with this one.^[2][3]

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 d e Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
7. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ Zalizniak, Anna A., et al. (2024), Database of Semantic Shifts (DatSemShift), Moscow: Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences, https://datsemshift.ru
9. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
10. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
12. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
13. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge