Etymologically
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σταυρός

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /stau̯.rós/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /staˈβros/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /staˈvros/[1]

Forms

σταυρός (staurós) m (genitive σταυροῦ); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂u-rós (“pole”),[2][1] from the root *steh₂- (“to stand”), which is also that of ἵστημι (hístēmi).[1][3] It is identical with Old Norse staurr (“pole”), and the same base probably underlies Latin īnstaurō (“to renew, restore”).[2] Cognate with Icelandic staur and English stour, “stake, pole”.[1] Beekes connects it further with στοά (stoá), στῦλος (stûlos) and στύω (stúō).[2]

Ancient writers had their own explanations: Hesychius derives the word from posts that “stand” in the “breeze”, αὔρα (aúra), and Anastasius Sinaita from στάσις (stásis) and εὖρος (eûros) “width”.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is an upright stake or pale: the Odyssey describes a yard fenced with close-set stakes, and the Iliad a fence of stakes round a dwelling.[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

Thucydides and Xenophon use it in the plural for a palisade, and Herodotus and Thucydides for piles driven in as a foundation or to protect ships in a harbour.[5][6] Plutarch uses it of the stake on which a body was impaled.[5][6]

From Hellenistic times it named the cross of crucifixion, in Diodorus, Polybius and Plutarch;[5][6][8] Triantafyllidis regards this as a sense taken from Latin crux.[9] In the New Testament it is the cross of Jesus, and “to take up one's cross” means to accept suffering willingly.[10][5][6] Lucian notes that its shape was that of the letter T.[5] The verb σταυρόω (stauróō) “to crucify” and the noun σταύρωσις (staúrōsis) were formed from it.[10]

Modern Greek σταυρός (stavrós) continues the Hellenistic sense, the cross.[9][11]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for upright stakes.[5][6]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for piles supporting a platform, and Thucydides for a palisade.[5][6][12]
  • 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it for the cross of crucifixion.[6][12]
  • 1st century BC – Diodorus Siculus uses it for the cross.[5][8][12]
  • 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for the cross of Jesus and, figuratively, for voluntary suffering.[10][5]
  • Modern Greek – σταυρός means “cross”.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An upright stake or pale; in the plural, a palisade.[5][6]
  2. A pile driven into the ground or the sea bed as a foundation or protection.[5][6]
  3. A stake for impaling a body.[5][6]
  4. (Hellenistic, New Testament) A cross, as the instrument of crucifixion.[5][6][10]
  5. (New Testament, figurative) Suffering accepted willingly.[10][6]

Word family

  • ἀνασταυρόω (anastauróō)
  • ἀποσταυρόω (apostauróō)
  • περισταυρόω (peristauróō)
  • σταυρόω (stauróō)
  • σταύρωμα (staúrōma)
  • σταύρωσις (staúrōsis)
  • συσταυρόομαι (sustauróomai)
  • διασταυρόω (diastauróō)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c 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. ^ Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
  4. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  7. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  8. ^ a b Abbott-Smith, G. (1922), A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark
  9. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  10. ^ a b c d e 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
  11. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  12. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge