τέμνω

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /tém.nɔː/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈtem.no/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈtem.no/^[1]

Forms

τέμνω (témnō) ^[1]

Etymology

It is from the root Proto-Indo-European *temh₁- (“to cut”).^[2][3][1] The original present was the nasal τάμνω (támnō), from ⟨*tm̥-né-h₁-⟩, which epic, Ionic and Doric kept.^[2][4] Attic τέμνω took its ε from the aorist ἔτεμον (étemon), while those dialects made a new aorist ⟨ἔταμον⟩.^[2][4][1]

The nasal present matches Latin temnō (“to despise”) and Middle Irish tamnaid (“cuts off”), and perhaps Baltic and Slavic verbs for beating and hammering.^[2][4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it, mostly as τάμνω, for cutting flesh, cutting meat for a meal, and above all in the phrase ὅρκια τάμνειν, to make a treaty by cutting the throats of sacrificial victims.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

It meant to cut in many ways: to make an incision, to perform surgery (Plato, Xenophon), to castrate an animal (Hesiod), to cut up meat, to cut down trees and harvest crops, and to ravage an enemy's land.^[5][1] It also meant to make by cutting, to hew stones or cut a road, to cut one's way through the sea, and to divide.^[5][1][7] Aeschylus uses it figuratively of the surgery that heals a diseased state.^[5]

Its derivatives include τομή (tomḗ, “cut”), τόμος (tómos, “section, volume”), ἄτομος (átomos, “uncut, indivisible”) and ἐπιτομή (epitomḗ).^[2][4] Modern Greek τέμνω (témno) is a learned word for “to cut”, and in geometry “to intersect”.^[8]

Timeline

• Homer – It is used for cutting meat and for making a treaty with a sacrifice.^[5][6]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it for castrating an animal.^[5]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for making a treaty.^[5]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato and Xenophon use it for surgery.^[5]
• 3rd–1st century BC – The Septuagint uses it for pruning vines and hewing stones.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cut, cut open; to wound.^[5][1]
2. (medicine) To perform surgery.^[5]
3. To castrate.^[5]
4. To slaughter a victim, or (with ὅρκια) to make a treaty with a sacrifice.^[5][6]
5. To cut up meat; to divide into portions.^[5]
6. To cut down trees; to reap; to ravage land.^[1][5]
7. To hew stones; to cut a road; to prune vines.^[5][7]
8. To cut one's way through, as through the sea.^[1][5]

Word family

• ἀνατέμνω (anatémnō)
• ἀντιτέμνω (antitémnō)
• ἀποπροτέμνω (apoprotémnō)
• ἀποτέμνω (apotémnō)
• διατέμνω (diatémnō)
• ἐγκατατέμνω (enkatatémnō)
• ἐκτέμνω (ektémnō)
• ἐντέμνω (entémnō)
• ἐπικατατέμνω (epikatatémnō)
• ἐπιτέμνω (epitémnō)
• κατατέμνω (katatémnō)
• παρατέμνω (paratémnō)
• περιτέμνω (peritémnō)
• προτέμνω (protémnō)

Related words

• τομή (tomḗ)
• τόμος (tómos)
• ἄτομος (átomos)
• ἐπιτομή (epitomḗ)
• Latin temno

Usage notes

Hesychius records a different τέμνω meaning “to milk”, of unclear origin.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
4. ^ a b c d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ a b c d Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
8. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki