σφαῖρα

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /spʰâi̯.ra/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈsɸɛ.ra/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈsfe.ra/^[1]

Forms

σφαῖρᾰ (sphaîra) f (genitive σφαίρᾱς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed like πεῖρα (peîra), σπεῖρα (speîra) and μοῖρα (moîra), but has no cognates outside Greek.^[2][3] It has sometimes been connected with σπαίρω (spaírō, “to gasp, quiver”) and Indo-European *sperH- (“to kick, rebound”), as “something that rebounds”, but Beekes finds the meaning hardly convincing and the initial /sph/ unexplained.^[2][1] Nikolayev proposes *skʷʰə́řřa, from a root “to be round”.^[1] Rosół rejects a Semitic explanation from a root “to plait”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it in the Odyssey for a ball: “to play at ball” (6.100), and a fine ball taken up by dancers (8.372).^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

Anacreon, Herodotus and Plato use it for a ball as a plaything.^[7] Parmenides, Plato and Aristotle use it for a sphere or globe, and Aristotle for the heavenly spheres that carry the stars round the earth.^[7] Plato also uses it for the padded boxing-glove used in practice, and the young men of Sparta were called σφαιρεῖς (sphaireîs) after it.^[7][2]

Its derivative σφαιρικός (sphairikós) “spherical” is in Archytas and Aristotle.^[2] Syriac, Ethiopic and Armenian borrowed the word, and Latin as sphaera.^[2][8] Modern Greek σφαίρα is a learned word for a sphere, a ball and a bullet; the senses “bullet” and “sphere (of activity)” are semantic loans from English shot and French sphère.^[9]

Timeline

• Homer – The Odyssey uses it for a ball in play.^[5][6]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for a ball.^[7][6][10]
• 5th century BC – Parmenides uses it for a sphere.^[7][10]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it for the heavenly spheres.^[7][10]
• Modern Greek – σφαίρα means sphere, ball, bullet.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ball for playing.^[5][7]
2. A sphere, globe.^[7][1]
3. (astronomy) A heavenly sphere.^[7]
4. A padded boxing-glove.^[7][2]

Related words

• Latin sphaera
• English sphere

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
5. ^ a b c Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge