σπεῖρα

Forms

σπεῖρα (speîra) f (genitive σπείρᾱς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *sper-yeh₂-, from Proto-Indo-European *sper- (“to twist, wind”).^[1][2] Beekes calls the form only quasi-Indo-European, and it is uncertain whether it was first made from a verb or a noun.^[2][3] Frisk compares the feminines πεῖρα (peîra), στεῖρα (steîra) and μοῖρα (moîra), and notes that the same verb “to wind, plait” left traces in σπάρτον (spárton, “rope”), σπεῖρον (speîron, “cloth, shroud”) and perhaps σπάργανον (spárganon, “swaddling band”); the primary verb itself was replaced by σπειράομαι (speiráomai) and by verbs such as εἰλέω (eiléō).^[3][2] Wiktionary adds Old Armenian փարել (pʻarel, “to enclose, embrace”) and perhaps Albanian fier (“fern”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is perhaps found in the Odyssey, as a variant reading for a ship's cable.^[4][2] In the 5th century BC Sophocles uses the plural for the meshes of a net, Euripides for the coils of a serpent, and a Hippocratic writer speaks of twisting something into a ball.^[5][4][6]

Semantic evolution

It names many round or twisted things: a rope or ship's cable, the straps wound round a boxer's fist in Theocritus, a knot in wood in Theophrastus, a padded ring for carrying loads on the head, a round cushion, a hairstyle, a cheesecake, and the rounded moulding at the base of a column, the torus.^[5][4] In geometry Hero and Proclus use it for the anchor-ring, the solid made by turning a circle about a line.^[5]

In military use it is a unit: in Polybius a Macedonian battalion and the Roman maniple, and later the Roman cohort, the sense in the Septuagint (2 Maccabees, Judith) and the New Testament (Matthew 27:27, John 18:3).^[4][7][2] It was borrowed into Latin spīra.^[8] Medieval vernacular Greek used it for a body of armed men.^[9] In Modern Greek σπείρα is a learned word for a spiral, a sense taken from French spire, itself from the Latin word, and for a criminal gang, a semantic loan from English ring.^[10]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it for the meshes of a net, and Euripides for a serpent's coils.^[5][4][11]
• 5th century BC – A Hippocratic writer speaks of twisting something into a ball.^[5][11]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theocritus uses it for a boxer's straps.^[5][4][11]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it for the Roman maniple.^[4][7][11]
• 1st century BC – An inscription from Andania uses it for a round cushion.^[5]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for a Roman cohort.^[7]
• Medieval Greek – It means a body of armed men.^[9]
• Modern Greek – It is a learned word for a spiral and for a gang.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. Anything twisted or wound; the coils of a serpent.^[5][4]
2. A rope, cord, ship's cable; in the plural, the meshes of a net.^[5][4]
3. A padded ring or round cushion.^[5]
4. In the plural, ox-hide straps wound round a boxer's fist.^[5][4]
5. (architecture) The torus, the rounded moulding at the base of a column.^[5]
6. (geometry) An anchor-ring.^[5]
7. (military) A battalion; the Roman maniple; the Roman cohort.^[4][7]

Word family

• σπειρηδόν (speirēdón)
• σπειραία (speiraíā)
• σπειράομαι (speiráomai)

Related words

• σπάρτον (spárton)
• σπεῖρον (speîron)
• σπάργανον (spárganon)
• Latin spīra

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
9. ^ a b 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