στοά

Forms

στοᾱ́ (stoā́) f (genitive στοᾶς); first declension^[1] Also στοιά (Aristophanes, dialect inscriptions), Ionic στοιή (stoiḗ) (Erythrae, Herodotus), and στωϊά (stōïá) (Cnossos, Mytilene).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *stōyyā́, from the family of Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand”).^[1][5] Frisk and Beekes analyse it as a collective noun in /-iá/ built on an unattested noun with the full-grade stem /stōw-/: the long vowel was shortened before /i/, which was then lost, giving στοιά (stoiá) and finally στοά.^[5][4][3] Beside this full grade, the reduced grades are seen in σταυρός (staurós, “stake”) and στῦλος (stûlos, “pillar”).^[5][4]

Full-grade forms elsewhere are Lithuanian stovė́ti (“to stand”), Old Church Slavonic ставити (staviti, “to place”), Old English stōw (“place”) and Sanskrit स्थावर (sthāvará, “firm, fixed”), but Frisk and Beekes think these rather go back to a stem with /āw/, and Chantraine notes that the supposed Greek stem with /ōw/ remains isolated.^[5][4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its earliest record is an Attic inscription of the 6th or 5th century BC found at Delphi.^[2] Herodotus and Thucydides use it for a roofed colonnade.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

In Athens the word named several public buildings: storehouses for grain, which Aristophanes mentions, the Royal Stoa where the king archon sat, and the Painted Stoa.^[2] Since Zeno taught in the Painted Stoa, “those from the Stoa” were the Stoics, and the Stoa alone came to mean their school; the adjective στωϊκός (stōïkós) “Stoic” was derived from it.^[2][3][4] In warfare it named a long shed used in sieges, and a covered gallery or trench.^[2]

The New Testament mentions the porch of Solomon and the porches round a pool.^[7] English took it as stoa around 1600.^[8] In Modern Greek στοά (stoá) is a learned word: besides the ancient building, it means an arcade or a shopping gallery, after Italian galleria and French arcade, and a Masonic lodge, after Italian loggia and the English word lodge.^[9]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – An Attic inscription found at Delphi names a stoa.^[2]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus and Thucydides use it for a colonnade.^[2][6]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it for a grain store, and Plato names the king archon's stoa.^[2]
• 3rd century BC – An inscription uses it for a siege shed.^[2]
• 1st century AD – The Gospel of John mentions the porch of Solomon.^[7][2]
• 2nd–3rd century AD – Sextus Empiricus calls the Stoics “those from the Stoa”.^[2]
• About 1600 – English borrows it as stoa.^[8]
• Modern Greek – It means an arcade, a shopping gallery and a Masonic lodge.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A roofed colonnade, a portico or cloister.^[2][7]
2. (Athens) A storehouse, especially for grain.^[2]
3. (Athens) One of the public porticoes: the Royal Stoa, the court of the king archon; the Painted Stoa.^[2]
4. The Stoic school of philosophy, which met in the Painted Stoa.^[2][3]
5. (military) A long shed used in sieges; a covered gallery or communication trench.^[2]

Word family

• στωϊκός (stōïkós)

Related words

• κίων (kī́ōn)
• στῦλος (stûlos)
• σταυρός (staurós)
• ἵστημι (hístēmi)
• English stoa

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 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 e Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki