σῶς

Forms

σῶς (sôs) m or f (neuter σῶν); second declension^[1] Epic and poetic σάος (sáos), also found in Cypriot, Arcadian and Laconian.^[2][3] Epic and Herodotean σόος (sóos).^[2] σῶος (sôos) in Herodotus, Hippocrates, Xenophon and Hellenistic Greek.^[2] Comparative σαώτερος (saṓteros) (Iliad 1.32, Xenophon, Theocritus).^[2] The Attic declension is defective: neuter σῶν, accusative plural σῶς, feminine and neuter plural σᾶ.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *sáwos, as the Cypriot name Σαϝοκλέϝης (Sawokléwēs) shows.^[2][6][3] Contraction of σάος (sáos) gave the Attic form, from which σῶος (sôos) was made by thematisation, and the epic σόος (sóos) is either the older form remade after the Attic one or a metrical lengthening.^[2][6][3]

Beekes takes the Proto-Hellenic word as a thematised form of *saus, from Proto-Indo-European *tu̯eh₂-u-s, from *teuh₂- (“to be strong”), but marks the Indo-European origin as uncertain.^[2] Chantraine compares Sanskrit तवस् (tavás, “strong”) and ταΰς (taús, “great”).^[3] A link with σωρός (sōrós, “heap”) and σῶμα (sôma, “body”) is quite uncertain.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Homer on, of people who are safe and alive: in the Iliad Agamemnon says he wants his army safe rather than destroyed.^[4][7]

Semantic evolution

In Homer it is also used of treasure kept safe, and in the phrase “sheer destruction is sure”.^[4][7] Herodotus pairs it with ὑγιής (hugiḗs, “healthy”), a phrase Thucydides and Plato also use.^[4] Of things it means intact or still extant: Herodotus says that an offering survived to his own day, and Plato calls the immortal part of the soul safe and indestructible.^[4] Of money it means undiminished, and in papyri a carrier undertakes to deliver a cargo safe and unharmed.^[4]

The verb σῴζω (sṓizō, “to save”) is derived from it, and through it σωτήρ (sōtḗr, “saviour”).^[2][6] It survives in the learned Modern Greek σώος (sóos), from the late form σῷος (sôios), used especially of people who come through danger unharmed.^[8][9]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it of people safe and alive, of treasure kept safe and of certain destruction.^[7][4]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it with ὑγιής (hugiḗs) for “safe and sound”.^[4][10]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it of the immortal as safe and indestructible.^[4][10]
• 2nd century AD – A papyrus uses it for a cargo to be delivered intact.^[4]
• Modern Greek – The learned σώος (sóos) means unharmed or intact.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of persons, safe and sound, alive and well.^[4][5][7]
2. Of things, safe, intact, still extant; of money, undiminished.^[4][5]
3. Of events, sure, certain: Homer's “now sheer destruction is sure for me” (νῦν τοι ἐμοὶ σῶς αἰπὺς ὄλεθρος, Iliad 13.773).^[4][7]

Word family

• σῴζω (sṓizō)
• σωτήρ (sōtḗr)
• σωτηρία (sōtēría)
• σώφρων (sṓphrōn)
• σαόφρων (saóphrōn)
• σῶστρα (sôstra)

Related words

• ταΰς (taús)

Usage notes

LSJ records a second σῶς, a noun said to mean “sprouting”, but it rests only on a doubtful reading in Hesychius.^[4] Hesychius glosses the adjective as “whole, complete, kept safe”.^[11]

References

1. ^ 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 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 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 c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ a b c d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
7. ^ a b c d e Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
10. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
11. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)