Etymologically
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στάδιον

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /stá.di.on/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈsta.ði.on/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈsta.ði.on/[1]

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)
  • 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