σῖτος

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /sîː.tos/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈsi.tos/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈsi.tos/^[1]

Forms

σῖτος (sîtos) m (genitive σῑ́του); second declension^[1] Heteroclite plural σῖτα (sîta) (neuter).^[2][3] Mycenaean Greek si-to.^[2][4]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain: unlike πυρός (purós) “wheat” and κριθή (krithḗ) “barley”, it has no convincing etymology.^[4][2][3]

It has often been explained as a loan from another Indo-European language, compared with the Balto-Slavic word for “grain” (Old Prussian geits (“bread”)) or with the Germanic word for “wheat” (Proto-Germanic *hwaitijaz), or as a substrate word, compared with Basque zitu (“corn, harvest”) or Sumerian zid (“flour”).^[4][2] Maccarrone proposed Egyptian sw.t (“grain”).^[4][2][1]

Beekes thinks the word nevertheless looks Indo-European, and reports Janda's proposal: a noun from an adjective “threshed”, from Proto-Indo-European *tih₂-tó- (“struck”), from a root *tieh₂- “to strike” seen in Hittite zāḫ-i (“to hit, beat”).^[2][1] Beekes considers this etymology of doubtful value.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Mycenaean tablets record si-to.^[2][4] In Homer it is bread or food other than meat, food as opposed to drink, and food in general; the Odyssey says that Ithaca has grain beyond measure.^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

Classical Greek used it for grain, both wheat and barley, as a crop and as a commodity: its ripening (Thucydides), ground corn (Herodotus), and its import and export (Demosthenes, Aristotle).^[3][6] Papyri of the 2nd century BC include olyra and lentils under it.^[3][1] It was also the maintenance allowance of troops (Thucydides) and, in law, the maintenance owed to widows, divorced women and orphans (Isaeus, Demosthenes, Aristotle); the Suda traces this use to Solon's laws.^[6][7]

In the New Testament it is wheat or grain: the weeds sown among the wheat (Matthew 13), the grain of wheat of John 12:24, a ship's cargo (Acts 27:38); Ignatius calls himself “God's wheat”, to be ground by the teeth of the beasts.^[8] Medieval Greek used it for the wheat plant and its grain, for bread and for food in general.^[9] Triantafyllidis treats Modern Greek σίτος (sítos) as a learned word and defines it as Modern Greek σιτάρι (sitári).^[10]

παράσιτος (parásitos), “one who eats at another's table”, is the source of English parasite.^[11]

Timeline

• Mycenaean – si-to on the Linear B tablets.^[2][4]
• Homer – bread, food.^[5][3]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses the neuter plural σῖτα, and Thucydides the maintenance of troops.^[3][6][12]
• 4th century BC – Demosthenes writes of imported grain, and Isaeus of the maintenance of widows and orphans.^[3][6][12]
• 2nd century BC – papyri include lentils and olyra under it.^[3]
• 1st century AD – the New Testament: wheat and grain.^[8]
• Modern Greek – σίτος, a learned word for wheat.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. Grain, comprising wheat and barley.^[6][3]
2. Food made from grain, bread, often as opposed to meat.^[6][5]
3. Food in general, often as opposed to drink.^[6][5]
4. A maintenance allowance for troops, and (plural) provisions.^[6]
5. (law) Maintenance for widows, divorced women, orphans and wards.^[6][7]

Word family

• ἄσιτος (ásītos)
• παράσιτος (parásītos)
• σιτάριον (sītárion)
• σιτίον (sītíon)
• σιτοφάγος (sītophágos)
• σιτία (sitía)
• σιτέομαι (sitéomai)
• σύσσιτος (sússitos)
• σιτηρέσιον (sitērésion)

Related words

• English parasite

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b Adler, Ada, ed. (1928–1938), Suidae Lexicon, 5 vols, Leipzig: Teubner
8. ^ a b 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. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge