Etymologically
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σκληρός

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /sklɛː.rós/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /skliˈros/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /skliˈros/[1]

Forms

σκληρός (sklērós) m (feminine σκληρά, neuter σκληρόν); first/second declension[1] Doric σκληρός (Pindar, Epicharmus), hyper-Doric σκλᾱρός.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *skelh₁- (“to dry up, wither”) with the suffix -ρός (-rós), like σκέλλω (skéllō, “to dry up, parch”).[3][1][4] It is built on the zero-grade stem *sklē-, from *skl-eh₁-, and the ⟨η⟩ kept in Doric shows that this vowel is old.[5][3][6] The same family has σκελετός (skeletós, “dried up body, mummy”) and σκληφρός (sklēphrós, “thin, slender”).[3]

The further etymology is obscure;[5] Germanic words for “lean, dry” such as Swedish skäll and English shallow have been compared.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record is in Hesiod's Theogony, of the harsh crash of thunder.[6][2][7]

Semantic evolution

From Theognis and Pindar on it means hard to the touch, as opposed to μαλακός (malakós), of wood, ground or a bed; it is also used of a harsh sound, a bitter taste or water from rocky soil, in Herodotus and the Hippocratic writers.[2][4] Aristophanes, Plato and Xenophon use it of a stiff body, Sophocles and Xenophon of a hard way of life, and since tragedy it describes harsh, stubborn people and cruel words or fortune.[4][2] The New Testament uses it of hard words and of a harsh master.[8]

Medieval vernacular Greek kept it, also in a form with ⟨ε⟩ for ⟨η⟩.[9] Modern Greek σκληρός (sklirós), the opposite of μαλακός (malakós), still means hard, firm, harsh or severe.[10]

Timeline

  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it of the harsh crash of thunder.[2][7][11]
  • 6th century BC – Theognis uses it of hard wood.[2][7][11]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of thunder, and the Hippocratic writers of harsh water.[2][11]
  • 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it of a hard way of life.[4][11]
  • 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it of hard words and a harsh master.[8]
  • Modern Greek – σκληρός means hard, harsh or severe.[10]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Hard to the touch, firm, solid; opposed to soft.[2][4]
  2. Of sound, taste or smell: harsh, rough, bitter.[2]
  3. Of the body: stiff, inflexible.[4]
  4. Of a way of life: hard, austere.[4]
  5. Of persons, words or fortune: harsh, stubborn, severe, cruel.[4][2][8]

Word family

  • σκλήρωσις (sklḗrōsis)
  • σκληρόω (sklēróō)
  • σκέλλω (skéllō)
  • σκελετός (skeletós)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b c 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
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  5. ^ a b c 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 Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  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. ^ 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 d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge