στατός

Forms

στᾰτός (statós) m (feminine στᾰτή, neuter στᾰτόν); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *statós, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *sth₂tós (“placed, standing”).^[1] Beekes and Frisk describe it as the old verbal adjective of ἵστημι (hístēmi) “to stand”, from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand”).^[2][3][4]

Cognate with Sanskrit स्थित (sthitá, “standing”), Latin status (“set, fixed”) and Old Norse staðr (“restive, of a horse”).^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Iliad it describes a horse kept in its stall, which breaks its halter and gallops over the plain.^[6][7][8]

Semantic evolution

Sophocles uses it of standing water and of winnowing fans set up as offerings.^[7][8] In Hellenistic Greek, in papyri and in the inventories of Delos, it describes wine-coolers and bowls made to stand and not be lifted, and as a noun it names a large bowl.^[7][2][4]

As a noun it also named a full-length robe worn by musicians and actors, in Duris and Plutarch, and the standing figures of automata in Hero.^[7][8] In inscriptions it named officials at Sparta and permanent priests at Rhodes.^[7] Its derivative στατικός (statikós) gave the Platonic name for the art of weighing.^[2][4]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it of a stalled horse.^[6][7]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it of standing water.^[7][8]
• 3rd century BC – Papyri and the Delian inventories use it of vessels made to stand.^[7][2]
• 1st century AD – Hero uses it of standing automata.^[7][9]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it for a full-length robe.^[8][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Placed, standing; of a horse, stalled; of water, still.^[7][8][6]
2. Set up as an offering.^[7]
3. Of vessels, made to stand, not to be lifted.^[7][2]
4. Of automata, standing, with restricted movements.^[7]
5. Of priests, permanently appointed (Rhodes).^[7]

Noun

1. A large bowl or vessel.^[7][2][4]
2. A full-length robe, worn by musicians and actors.^[8][7]
3. In the plural, a board of officials at Sparta.^[7]

Word family

• ὑποστατός (hupostatós)
• στατικός (statikós)
• στατίζω (statízō)

Related words

• ἵστημι (hístēmi)
• στάσις (stásis)
• Latin status

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b c d 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. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
6. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux