σκῆπτρον

Forms

σκῆπτρον (skêptron) n (genitive σκήπτρου); second declension^[1] Doric σκᾶπτον (skâpton) (Pindar) and later σκᾶπτρον (Bacchylides, the Anthology); the tragedians keep σκῆπτρον even in lyric passages.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek σκήπτομαι (skḗptomai, “to lean on”) + -τρον (-tron, “instrument suffix”), “something to lean on”, like βάκτρον (báktron) “staff”.^[1][3][4][5] The ancient lexica already derived it from the verb's sense “to lean upon”.^[6][7][8]

Frisk and Chantraine take the verb σκήπτω (skḗptō) as a denominative of σκᾶπος (skâpos), a Hesychius gloss for “branch”, so that the whole family has a stem σκᾱπ- (skāp-) with long ᾱ throughout.^[4][9][10] Beekes equates this gloss with Latin scāpus (“shaft, stalk”) and Albanian shkop (“stick, sceptre”), pointing to *skeh₂p-o-, and sees the zero grade in the Germanic words for “shaft, spear”, Old High German skaft and Old Norse skapt.^[10][4] He adds that although the words could be Indo-European in form, their distribution and meaning point rather to a European substrate.^[10] Chantraine notes that the Latin word may itself be a loan from Greek, and that the meaning argues against a link with σκάπτω (skáptō, “to dig”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from the Iliad on: the priest Chryses comes with a golden staff in his hand (1.15), and a plain stick for walking is a σκῆπτρον too, as when Hephaestus takes up a thick one (18.416).^[5][2][11]

Semantic evolution

In Homer the staff marks authority: kings, priests, seers and heralds carry it, and a speaker in the assembly receives it from the herald as a sign of his right to speak.^[5][2] Agamemnon's sceptre, made by Hephaestus, passed from father to son, and Thucydides calls that passage of the Iliad “the handing down of the sceptre”.^[2] In Hesiod the Muses give one to the poet.^[2][3] Tragedy uses it, often in the plural, for royal power itself, and Sophocles' Oedipus calls his daughters the “staffs” on which he leans; in prose the ordinary word for a walking stick was βακτηρία (baktēríā).^[2][3] The related σκηπτοῦχος (skēptoûkhos), “sceptre-bearer”, was used for a high court office among the Persians.^[10]

The Septuagint uses it for a staff and a sceptre, and also for a tribe of Israel, because the Hebrew word for “staff” also means “tribe”, and the First Letter of Clement follows it.^[12][13] It was borrowed as Latin sceptrum, and Russian скипетр and Old Georgian also took it from Greek.^[14][1] In medieval vernacular Greek the sceptre stood for royal power and could also mean a banner.^[15] Modern Greek has the learned σκήπτρο (skíptro), and “to hold the sceptre” is to be the leader in a field.^[16]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for a walking stick and for the staff of kings, priests, heralds and speakers.^[5][2]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Theogony tells how the Muses gave a staff to the poet.^[2][11][17]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses the Doric σκᾶπτον (skâpton) for the sceptre of Zeus.^[2][13][17]
• 5th century BC – Aeschylus and Sophocles use it for royal power, and Thucydides refers to the Homeric “handing down of the sceptre”.^[2][3][17]
• Late 1st century AD – The First Letter of Clement uses it for the sceptre of God's majesty and for a tribe of Israel.^[13]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular texts use it for the emblem of royal power and for royal authority.^[15]
• About 1300 – English borrows sceptre through Old French from Latin.^[18]
• Modern Greek – The learned σκήπτρο (skíptro) means a sceptre.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A staff or stick to lean on, used by the old, the lame, the blind or beggars.^[2][5] (figurative) a support, of a person.^[2][3][5]
2. A staff as a badge of authority, a sceptre: of kings and gods, priests and seers, heralds and bards, and of a speaker holding the floor in the assembly.^[2][3][5]
3. (figurative) Royal power, rule, often in the plural.^[2][3]
4. (Septuagint) A tribe of Israel.^[12][13]

Word family

• ἐρυσίσκηπτρον (erusískēptron)
• σκηπτοῦχος (skēptoûkhos)
• σκηπάνιον (skēpánion)

Related words

• σκήπτομαι (skḗptomai)
• σκᾶπος (skâpos)
• σκᾶπτον (skâpton)
• Latin sceptrum
• English sceptre

Usage notes

In Homer σκῆπτρον is the word for any staff or stick,^[19][5] and Classical prose prefers βακτηρία for the walking stick, and ῥάβδος is a rod or wand.^[19][2][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
6. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
8. ^ Pseudo-Zonaras, Lexicon, ed. Johann August Heinrich Tittmann (1808), Iohannis Zonarae Lexicon, Leipzig: Crusius
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b c d 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
11. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
12. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
13. ^ a b c d 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
14. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
15. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
16. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
17. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
18. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
19. ^ a b Smith, William; Wayte, William; Marindin, G. E., eds. (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 3rd ed., London: John Murray