τέγγω

Forms

τέγγω (téngō) ^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *téngeti,^[1] from the root *teng- (“to wet, moisten”), a primary verb.^[2][3]

Cognate with Latin tingō (“to wet, dip, dye”), from *tengō,^[2][4] whose variant tinguō was remade after unguō.^[2] Germanic has the zero grade in Old High German dunkōn (“to dip”) (modern German Tunke (“sauce”)) and the full grade in Alemannic German tink (“moist”).^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest example is in Alcaeus, who tells a drinker to wet his lungs with wine.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

The verb is mostly poetic and rare in Attic prose.^[2][4] It meant to wet by dipping, such as feet in the sea or clothes in a river, or to wet in general, as a stream waters land.^[6] In lyric and tragedy it is above all the word for tears, wetting cheeks and eyes, and with an internal object Pindar and Sophocles use it for “to shed” tears.^[5][6] Tragedy also has it for hands or beards soaked with blood.^[6] In the passive it came to mean to be softened, said of an obstinate person who yields, in Aeschylus, Euripides, Aristophanes, Plato and Plutarch.^[6] Galen distinguishes it, as moistening from within by liquid food, from βρέχω (brékhō), wetting the surface.^[5][4] Derivatives include τέγξις (ténxis, “moistening”) and τεγκτός (tenktós, “softened by moistening”).^[2]

Timeline

• 7th–6th century BC – Alcaeus uses it of wetting the lungs with wine.^[5][7]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it for shedding tears, and Aeschylus of tears wetting the cheeks.^[5][8][7]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles and Euripides use it of tears, rain and blood.^[6][5][7]
• 4th century BC – Plato uses it in the Laws for washing the feet in the sea.^[5][7]
• 2nd century AD – Galen distinguishes it from βρέχω (brékhō).^[5][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To wet by dipping in water; to soak or steep.^[6][5]
2. To wet or water in general; of a drinker, to soak one's lungs with wine.^[6][5]
3. To wet with tears; in the passive, to be wet with tears, to weep.^[6][5]
4. With an internal object, to shed tears.^[6][5]
5. To drench or stain with blood.^[6]
6. (passive, figurative) To be softened, to yield.^[6][5]

Word family

• τέγξις (ténxis)
• τεγκτός (tenktós)

Related words

• Latin tingō

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
8. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux