στρατιώτης

Forms

στρᾰτῐώτης (stratiṓtēs) m (genitive στρᾰτῐώτου); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek στρατιά (stratiā́, “army”) + -ώτης (-ṓtēs),^[2][3][4] like δεσμώτης (desmṓtēs, “prisoner”) and νησιώτης (nēsiṓtēs, “islander”).^[5][3] Wiktionary also gives two other analyses: a noun in -της (-tēs) from an unattested verb *στρατιάομαι (*stratiáomai), or a derivative in -ιώτης (-iṓtēs) of the base noun itself.^[1]

The base noun is στρατός (stratós, “army, host”).^[1][6] Beekes takes it as originally a “camping army”, from Proto-Indo-European *str̥-tó-, the participle in *-to- of *ster- (“to spread out”); it matches Avestan stərəta- (“spread out”) and Old Irish sreth (“strewn layer”).^[6][7] Frisk notes that the forms correspond exactly but the development of the meaning is unclear, and cites Strunk's view that it first meant “the one to be struck down”, the enemy army.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Herodotus and the comic poet Cratinus use it for a soldier;^[4][8] Aeschylus already uses the feminine στρατιῶτις (stratiôtis) as an adjective, in the Agamemnon.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Thucydides uses it in speeches, in the address “men, soldiers”, collectively in the singular, and of soldiers serving on ships.^[4] Aristotle uses it of the professional soldier, the mercenary.^[4][2] Papyri of the 3rd century BC on use it for the soldiers of Ptolemaic and later Roman Egypt.^[4] The physicians name plants after it: Dioscorides calls the water lettuce the “water soldier”, and a “thousand-leaved” kind is yarrow.^[4]

In the New Testament it is used of soldiers in the Gospels and Acts, and figuratively in the phrase “a soldier of Christ Jesus” in the second letter to Timothy.^[8] Rabbinic Hebrew took it as a loanword, and Sahidic Coptic has the borrowed plural Coptic ⲥⲧⲣⲁⲧⲓⲱⲧⲁ (stratiōta) in a manuscript of about 800 AD.^[8][9]

Modern Greek uses it as a learned word for a private in the army, and for a toy soldier and a pawn in chess; its figurative sense, a person who fights for an ideal, rests on the medieval phrase “soldier of Christ” and on the French soldat.^[10][3]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Herodotus and Cratinus use it for a soldier.^[4][8]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides uses it collectively in the singular and of soldiers serving on ships.^[4]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it of the professional soldier, the mercenary.^[4][2]
• 3rd century BC – Papyri use it for the soldiers of Ptolemaic Egypt.^[4]
• 1st century AD – Dioscorides gives the name to the water lettuce.^[4]
• 1st century AD – The second letter to Timothy calls a believer “a soldier of Christ Jesus”.^[8]
• 9th century AD – A Sahidic manuscript of about 800 has the borrowed Coptic ⲥⲧⲣⲁⲧⲓⲱⲧⲁ (stratiōta).^[9]
• Modern Greek – στρατιώτης (stratiótis) is a learned word for a private soldier.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A soldier, a member of an armed force; also a soldier serving on a ship.^[4][2]
2. A professional soldier, a mercenary.^[4][2]
3. (New Testament, figurative) A soldier of Christ.^[8]
4. (botany) The water lettuce; with an epithet meaning “thousand-leaved”, yarrow.^[4]

Word family

• στρατιωτικός (stratiōtikós)

Related words

• στρατιά (stratiā́)
• στράτιος (strátios)
• στρατιῶτις (stratiôtis)
• στρατολογέω (stratologéō)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
6. ^ a b 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
7. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
8. ^ a b c d e f 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 Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki