σκιά

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /ski.ǎː/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /sciˈa/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /sciˈa/^[1]

Forms

σκῐᾱ́ (skiā́) f (genitive σκῐᾶς); first declension^[1] Ionic σκιή (skiḗ).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is an old word for “shadow”, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *skeh₁ieh₂, genitive *skh₁ieh₂-s, which originally inflected with ablaut.^[4][2] It matches Albanian hije and Tocharian B skiyo, both “shadow”, and Avestan a-saya- (“casting no shadow”) corresponds to Greek ἄσκιος (áskios).^[4][2] Sanskrit and Persian have the word with a lengthened grade, Slavic with an n-suffix, and Old Irish scāth (“shadow”) with a t-suffix.^[4][2]

Beekes thinks the old link with σκηνή (skēnḗ) “tent” improbable.^[4]

Ancient etymologists explained it as “what goes along with” someone, from κίω (kíō) “to go”, or from σχέθω (skhéthō) “to hold back”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in the Odyssey, for a shadow and for the shades of the dead.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

From Hesiod on it is also shade, shelter from the sun and heat.^[6] In Pindar and tragedy it became an image of what is fleeting and unreal: Pindar calls man “a shadow's dream”, Sophocles speaks of human beings as phantoms or “a weightless shadow”, and Aeschylus uses it of a man worn to a shadow.^[3][6] Plato opposed shadow to reality, and “a donkey's shadow” meant something not worth fighting over (Aristophanes, Plato).^[6]

In Hellenistic inscriptions, papyri and Menander it also means a coloured hem on a garment, and the compound σκιαγραφία (skiagraphía) refers to shading in painting.^[2][1] The Septuagint's “shadow of death” in Psalm 23 comes from reading a Hebrew word for darkness as two words, “shadow” and “death”.^[7] In the New Testament it is shade, a shadow, and a mere outline of something real.^[8]

Medieval vernacular forms include ασκιά, ησκιά and οσκιά, ησκιά probably from the phrase η σκιά, and Byzantine Greek also had a masculine ἥσκιος.^[9][1] The word continues as Modern Greek σκιά (skiá).^[10]

Timeline

• Homer – the Odyssey: shadows and the shades of the dead.^[2][3]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar calls man “a shadow's dream”.^[3][11]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles and Euripides use it as an image of human frailty.^[3][11]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato contrasts shadow and reality.^[6][11]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Menander uses it for a coloured hem.^[2][11]
• Septuagint – the “shadow of death” of Psalm 23.^[7]
• Medieval Greek – the forms ασκιά and ησκιά, and Byzantine ἥσκιος.^[9][1]

Meanings

Noun

1. Shade, shelter from light and heat.^[6][8]
2. A shadow cast by a person or object.^[6][3]
3. (figurative) A shadow as opposed to reality; a mere reflection or faint trace.^[6][8]
4. The shade of a dead person, a ghost or phantom; an emaciated person.^[6][3]
5. A symbol of what is fleeting or unreal; in proverbs, “a donkey's shadow”, a trifle.^[6]
6. (Hellenistic) A coloured hem or edging of a garment.^[2]
7. (painting) Shading, hatching.^[1]

Word family

• ἄσκιος (áskios)
• εὔσκιος (eúskios)
• σκιαγραφία (skiagraphía)
• σκιάζω (skiázō)
• σκιάς (skiás)
• σκιατροφέω (skiatrophéō)
• σκιάω (skiáō)
• σκιόεις (skióeis)
• σκιαγράφος (skiāgráphos)
• σκιαμαχία (skiāmakhíā)

Related words

• English squirrel

Usage notes

σκίουρος (skíouros) “squirrel” is often explained as “shadow-tail”, a compound with οὐρά (ourá) “tail” (LSJ, Frisk), but Beekes considers that a folk etymology and the word perhaps Pre-Greek; through Medieval Latin it is the source of English squirrel.^[3][4]

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 h i Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
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. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge