σκᾶπος

Forms

σκᾶπος (skâpos) m^[1] The manuscript of Hesychius writes it σκάπος.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is the Doric form, with /aː/ for Attic-Ionic /ɛː/, of the noun at the base of σκήπτομαι (skḗptomai, “to lean on, prop oneself”), σκῆπτρον (skêptron, “staff, sceptre”), Doric σκᾶπτον (skâpton) and σκηπάνιον (skēpánion, “staff”).^[4][5][6] Frisk and Chantraine explain the verb as a derivative of this noun, in the same pattern as κόπτω (kóptō) beside κόπος (kópos).^[5][7]

Beekes equates the noun with Latin scāpus (“shaft, stalk”) and Albanian shkop (“stick”), which point to Proto-Indo-European *skeh₂p-o-, and finds a zero grade in the Germanic words for a shaft or spear, such as Old High German skaft and Old Norse skapt.^[4][8] Formally they could be Indo-European, but in his view the distribution and the meanings point rather to a European substrate word.^[4] Chantraine notes that the Latin word may instead be a borrowing from the Greek.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The only record is a gloss of Hesychius, who explains it as “branch” and as the name of a certain wind.^[9][2]

Semantic evolution

Pape takes it as the Doric equivalent of σκῆπος, a staff or stick.^[6] The sense “wind” is probably due to σκηπτός (skēptós), a sudden squall or thunderbolt, from the same verb.^[4][5]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses the related Doric σκᾶπτον for a staff.^[4][5][10]
• 5th century AD (probably) – Hesychius glosses σκᾶπος as a branch and a kind of wind.^[9][2][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A branch; a staff, stick.^[9][2][6]
2. A kind of wind.^[9][2]

Related words

• σκῆπτρον (skêptron)
• σκήπτομαι (skḗptomai)
• σκηπτός (skēptós)
• Latin scāpus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ Charbonnet, André (2025), Chæréphon, v4.7: supplement to Bailly from papyri, inscriptions and recent lexica
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. ^ a b c d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ a b c Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
9. ^ a b c d Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
10. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge