τέσσαρες
Pronunciation
- 5th-century BC Attic: /tés.sa.res/[1]
- 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈtes.sa.res/[1]
- 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈtes.sa.res/[1]
Forms
τέσσᾰρες (téssares) (ordinal τέτᾰρτος, adverbial τετρᾰ́κῐς)[1] Attic τέτταρες (téttares), Ionic and Hellenistic τέσσερες, Doric and Northwest Greek τέτορες, Homeric πίσυρες (písures), Lesbian πέσ(σ)υρες, Boeotian πέτταρες (péttares).[2][3] Only in compounds in Mycenaean: Mycenaean Greek qe-to-ro-we with four handles, Mycenaean Greek qe-to-ro-po-pi with four-footed animals.[2][4][3]
Etymology
It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *kʷétwores,[1] inherited from Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwóres (“four”).[1][2] Its inflection can be reconstructed from the forms of the dialects: the nominative Proto-Indo-European *kʷetuor-es is continued in Doric τέτορες (tétores), the accusative Proto-Indo-European *kʷetur-n̥s in Aeolic πέσυρας (pésuras), from which the nominative πέσυρες (pésures) was made, and the locative plural Proto-Indo-European *kʷetur-su in the dative τετράσι (tetrási).[2] The e-grade of Ionic τέσσερες (tésseres) can be compared with the Balto-Slavic collective Lithuanian ketverì;[2] Beekes says it did not arise from τέσσαρες by assimilation.[2]
Cognate with Sanskrit चतुर् (catur), Latin quattuor, Lithuanian keturì, Old Armenian չորք (čʻorkʻ), Tocharian B śtwer and Old English fēower.[2][1]
Earliest recorded meaning
The Pylos tablets have it only as the first member of compounds, of a vessel “with four handles” and of four-footed animals.[4][3] In the Iliad it is the numeral four, as in “four leaders”.[5][6]
Semantic evolution
The dialects kept their own forms: Attic τέτταρες, Ionic τέσσερες, Doric τέτορες.[2] The dative τέτρασι is poetic in Hesiod and Pindar and returns in late prose, in the Septuagint and Strabo.[7] In the New Testament the neuter is τέσσαρα or τέσσερα, the latter common in manuscripts of the Septuagint but almost never in inscriptions and papyri.[8] The neuter τέσσαρα gave Latin tessera, a square die or token.[9] Modern Greek τέσσερις (tésseris) continues the Ionic and Hellenistic form, with the ending of τρεις (treis).[10]
Timeline
- Mycenaean – the first member of compounds such as qe-to-ro-we.[4][3]
- Homer – the numeral four, with Homeric πίσυρες beside τέσσαρες.[5][2]
- Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses Doric τέτορες and the dative τέτρασι.[7][6][11]
- 1st century AD – the New Testament has τέσσαρα and τέσσερα.[8]
- Modern Greek – τέσσερις.[10]
Meanings
Numeral
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d Heggarty, Paul, et al. (2023), Indo-European Cognate Relationships (IE-CoR), Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, https://iecor.clld.org
- ^ a b c Микенско-русский словарь (Mycenaean–Russian dictionary)
- ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
- ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
- ^ a b c Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ 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
- ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
- ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
- ^ Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge