στρατός

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /stra.tós/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /straˈtos/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /straˈtos/^[1]

Forms

στρᾰτός (stratós) m (genitive στρᾰτοῦ); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *strətós, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *str̥tós, the verbal adjective in *-tós of the root *ster- (“to spread out”), so probably first an army spread out in its camp.^[1][2][3] The same root gives στόρνυμι (stórnumi, “to spread”) and, according to Beekes, στέρνον (stérnon, “breast”); στρωτός (strōtós, “spread”) is from the related root *sterh₃-, and how the two roots relate is still unclear.^[2][3][1]

It corresponds exactly to Sanskrit स्तृत (stṛtá-, “strewn, laid low”), with अस्तृत (á-stṛta-, “unconquerable”), Avestan stərəta- (“spread out”) and Old Irish sreth (“strewing”).^[2][3] The Aeolic form is στρότος (strótos) and the Cretan σταρτός (startós).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from the first lines of the Iliad on, where it is often the camp of the Achaeans as well as their army.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

Chantraine takes the original sense to be an army installed in camp, as against στίχες (stíkhes), an army drawn up in line; from this came “army”, on land or at sea.^[3][5] In lyric and tragedy it could mean a host or crowd, and the people as opposed to its leaders.^[5][3] In Crete σταρτός (startós) was a division of the citizen body.^[3][2] From it come στρατηγός (stratēgós, “general”) and στρατόπεδον (stratópedon, “camp”), and the whole word family is built on it.^[3]

It survives in Modern Greek as a learned word, Modern Greek στρατός (stratós), for an army and for a country's armed forces; the second sense follows French armée.^[6]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for the army and the camp of the Achaeans.^[3][4]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Works and Days uses it.^[4][7]
• 7th–6th century BC – Sappho has the Aeolic form στρότος for a host of horsemen or ships.^[8][5][7]
• 5th century BC – Aeschylus, Herodotus and Thucydides use it for a fleet.^[5][7]
• Modern Greek – It survives as a learned word for an army and for the armed forces.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. An army, host of troops; a naval force, fleet.^[5][8]
2. An army's camp.^[2][3]
3. A host, multitude (of horsemen, ships, Amazons, Centaurs).^[5]
4. The people of a city or nation; a crowd at a gathering.^[5][3]
5. (Crete) A division of the citizen body.^[3][2]

Word family

• λιποστράτιον (lipostrátion)
• στρατοφύλαξ (stratophúlax)

Related words

• στόρνυμι (stórnumi)
• στρατηγός (stratēgós)
• στρατόπεδον (stratópedon)

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. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
5. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
7. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
8. ^ a b Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press