σποδός

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /spo.dós/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /spoˈðos/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /spoˈðos/^[1]

Forms

σποδός (spodós) f (genitive σποδοῦ); second declension^[1]

Etymology

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek, following Furnée, who connects ἄσβολος (ásbolos, “soot”) and a *σπολός (*spolós) behind σπολεύς (spoleús).^[2][3] The group would show a prothetic vowel and an alternation of labials and of dentals with laterals, all typical of Pre-Greek.^[3]

Frisk and Chantraine leave the origin open, and Chantraine calls the group obscure.^[1][4] Frisk rejects Grošelj's proposal of a reconstructed Proto-Indo-European *skʷodós (“something crushed”), related to σκύζομαι (skúzomai).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the Odyssey, of the embers under which a stake is thrust to heat it.^[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Greek it meant ashes in general: the ashes of an altar fire, of a burnt city, and in tragedy the ashes of the dead.^[5][7] Mourners sprinkled ashes on their heads, and Herodotus uses it for the dust of the ground.^[7][5] Hippocratic medicine names metal oxides with it, such as copper oxide, and Strabo uses it of volcanic lava.^[5] Epigrams call a hard-drinking old woman a “wine-jar ash”, a sponge.^[5]

In the Septuagint and the New Testament ashes stand for what is transitory and, with sackcloth, for penitence.^[8] In Medieval and Modern Greek it survives as a learned word, Modern Greek σποδός (spodós), now the ashes of a cremated body.^[9][10]

Timeline

• Homer – The Odyssey uses it of embers.^[5][7]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of ashes and of dust.^[5][7][11]
• 5th century BC – Hippocratic writings use it for metal oxides.^[5][11]
• Around the turn of the era – Strabo uses it for lava.^[5][11]
• Modern Greek – It survives as a learned word for the ashes of the dead.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. Wood ashes, embers.^[5][7]
2. Ashes in general: of an altar fire, of a burnt city, and of the dead.^[5][7]
3. Ashes sprinkled on the head in mourning or penitence.^[7][8]
4. Dust of the earth.^[5][7]
5. (medicine) The oxide of certain metals.^[5]
6. Lava.^[5]

Word family

• διασποδέω (diaspodéō)
• σποδέω (spodéō)
• σποδίζω (spodízō)
• ἔνσποδος (énspodos)
• σποδιά (spodiā́)
• σποδιάς (spodiás)
• σποδόομαι (spodóomai)
• σποδώδης (spodṓdēs)

Usage notes

To “measure the ashes” was said of labour in vain.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ 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
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b 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 Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge