στάδιον

Forms

στᾰ́δῐον (stádion) n (genitive στᾰδῐ́ου); second declension^[1] The plural is both στάδια and the masculine στάδιοι, side by side in Herodotus and Thucydides; the masculine singular is not found.^[2][3]

Etymology

The origin is unclear.^[4][3] It may be the Argive σπάδιον (spádion), from σπάω (spáō, “to draw”), reshaped by folk etymology after στάδιος (stádios, “standing, fixed”).^[4][3] Bechtel held the opposite, that the form with ⟨τ⟩ is the original and σπάδιον a dissimilated variant.^[4][3] If it was formed from the adjective, which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand”), its first sense was a fixed measure, the fixed length of the course.^[3][1] Latin spatium (“space”) has been compared with σπάδιον, or taken as a loan from it.^[3]

The Etymologicum Magnum derives it from στάσις (stásis, “standing”), because the spectators stood to watch.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Theognis (1306) uses it for the foot race of one stade: something is “swifter than a stade”.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Pindar uses it for the single-length foot race, the sprint, as opposed to the two-length δίαυλος (díaulos), and for the course itself.^[2][7] Herodotus defines it as a measure of 100 orguiai (orguiá) or 6 plethra (pléthron), 600 Greek feet, about 185 metres, though the length varied between cities.^[2][7][3] The course at Olympia was exactly one stade long, so the word came to mean the racecourse and its building.^[2] Aristophanes uses it for exaggeration, “best by a hundred stades”.^[2][7] Euripides uses it for any open space, such as a dancing floor, and an epigram for a board game.^[2]

The Septuagint and the New Testament use it as a measure of about 192 metres, and the Septuagint also for a garden walk.^[8][9] It was borrowed as Coptic ⲥⲧⲁⲇⲓⲟⲛ (stadion).^[10] It passed into Latin as stadium, the source of the English word stadium.^[11][12] Modern Greek στάδιο (stádio) is a learned word for a sports ground and for a stage of a process, both senses modelled on French stade.^[13]

Timeline

• 6th century BC – Theognis compares speed with the stade race.^[2][7][14]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it for the single-stade foot race.^[2][7][14]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus defines it as 100 fathoms or 6 plethra.^[2][4][14]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes jokes that someone is “best by a hundred stades”.^[2][14]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it for the racecourse.^[7][14]
• 1st century AD – The Gospels measure distances in stades.^[8]
• About AD 300 – The Coptic borrowing is first recorded.^[10]
• Mid-14th century – English stadie, from Latin, is first recorded for a foot race and a racecourse.^[12]
• Modern Greek – The learned στάδιο means a stadium and a stage of a process.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A stade, a measure of length of 600 feet, about 185 metres, varying by place.^[2][7][8]
2. (dative, figurative) By a long way, “by a mile”.^[7][2]
3. The stade race, a sprint of one length of the course.^[2][7]
4. A racecourse; a stadium building.^[2][7]
5. Any open space, such as one for dancing; a board for a game.^[2][7]
6. A walk in a garden.^[2][9]

Word family

• σταδιεύς (stadieús)
• δεκαστάδιον (dekastádion)
• σταδιοδρόμος (stadiodrómos)

Related words

• σπάδιον (spádion)
• στάδιος (stádios)
• Latin stadium
• English stadium

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 k l m n o p q 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 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
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ 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
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. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
10. ^ a b Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
11. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
12. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
14. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge