Etymologically
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στέγω

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /sté.ɡɔː/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈste.ɣo/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈste.ɣo/[1]

Forms

στέγω (stégō) [1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg- (“to cover, roof”), a primary thematic present; its other tenses are late and rare.[2][1][3] The same root is in Latin tegō (“to cover”), Old Irish teg (“house”), Old High German dah (“roof”) and Old Norse þak (“roof”), and, with the initial s-, in Lithuanian stógas (“roof”).[2] Wiktionary also compares stíegiu (“to thatch”).[1] LSJ compares a Sanskrit verb for “to cover, hide”, which Beekes, following Kuiper, considers unrelated.[4][2]

Latin borrowed stega (“cover”) from its derivative στέγη (stégē), and segestre (“a cover of skins”) from στέγαστρον (stégastron).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is not Homeric.[2] Its first record is in Pindar, in the middle, for sheltering oneself from rain.[5][6]

Semantic evolution

Its basic sense is to cover closely and so keep something out: a good ship is a house “that keeps out the sea” (Aeschylus, Suppliants 135), and Thucydides uses the verb for watertight ships.[4][6] It is used of walls, armour and soldiers that fend off missiles and attacks.[6][4] From keeping out came keeping in: to hold water, to contain, as an urn holds the body in Sophocles.[4] Sophocles also uses it for towers that shelter a city, and Euripides for keeping something hidden.[4]

Later it meant to bear up, support a weight.[4] In the Septuagint it means to keep a secret.[7] In the New Testament it means to bear, endure, as in “since I could no longer bear it” (1 Thessalonians 3:5), and perhaps in 1 Corinthians 13:7, where it may instead mean to pass over in silence.[8] The derivative στέγη (stégē) lives on in Modern Greek στέγη (stégi) “roof, home”.[9]

Timeline

  • 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses the middle for sheltering from rain;[5][6][10] Aeschylus for a ship keeping out the sea.[5][6][4][10]
  • 5th century BC – Thucydides uses it for watertight ships and for felt caps that do not stop arrows.[4][6][10]
  • 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it for containing and sheltering;[4][10] Euripides for concealing.[4][10]
  • 2nd century BC – Polybius has the aorist ἔστεξα.[4][10]
  • Koine – The Septuagint uses it for keeping a secret, the New Testament for bearing hardship.[7][8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To cover closely; to keep out (water); (intransitive, of a ship) to be watertight.[4][6]
  2. To fend off, withstand (missiles, attacks).[4][6]
  3. To hold in, contain.[4]
  4. To shelter, protect.[4]
  5. To conceal, keep secret.[4][8]
  6. To bear up, support; to bear, endure.[4][8]

Word family

  • στέγη (stégē)
  • στέγος (stégos)
  • στεγνός (stegnós)
  • στεγανός (steganós)

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. ^ Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  7. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  10. ^ a b c d e f Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge