Etymologically
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τράπεζα

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /trá.pez.da/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈtra.pe.za/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈtra.pe.za/[1]

Forms

τρᾰ́πεζᾰ (trápeza) f (genitive τρᾰπέζης); first declension[1] Mycenaean Greek to-pe-za, read torpeza, with the o for a that is regular in that dialect.[2][3] Doric τράπεσδα (Alcman).[4][5] Boeotian τρέπεδδα.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *t(w)r̥-ped-ja, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *kʷtur-ped-ih₂- (“having four feet”), a compound of the zero grade of the word for “four” (τέσσαρες (téssares)) and the word for “foot” (πούς (poús)), with the feminine suffix *-ih₂.[2][5] Chantraine notes that, unlike τρίπους (trípous), it has the e-grade of “foot”, and that the loss of the first syllable of “four” is not well explained.[6] Cunliffe takes it as a reduced τετρα- (tetra-), and Babiniotis explains the loss as haplology, perhaps because the syllable was felt as a reduplication.[7][8]

Wiktionary mentions the alternative that the first element is *tr̥- (“three”), since early tables had three legs, as Sihler points out;[1] Beekes prefers “four”.[1] A folk-etymological connection with “three” produced Boeotian τρέπεδδα (trépedda) and Hesychius' gloss τρίπεζα (trípeza).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Mycenaean tablets of Knossos and Pylos list tables, to-pe-za.[3][2] In Homer it is a table, especially one for food.[7][5]

Semantic evolution

From the table itself it came to mean the meal and the food on it, and hospitality, the “table” one keeps;[5] Polybius speaks of δεύτεραι τράπεζαι, the second course, and Thucydides and Plato of the cuisine of a country.[5][4] In sanctuaries it was the offering table.[5] In Athens the money-changer's table became the bank, a sense common in the Attic orators; the New Testament has the tables of the money-changers.[5][9]

Today Modern Greek τράπεζα (trápeza) is a learned word: “bank” (with meanings taken from English bank), “table” in formal use and phrases such as round table (after French table), and in the Church Αγία Τράπεζα, the altar.[10]

Timeline

  • Mycenaean – The tablets of Knossos and Pylos record tables, to-pe-za.[3][2]
  • Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for dining tables.[7][5]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of the meal set on the table.[5][11]
  • 5th century BC – Thucydides uses it of a country's style of cooking.[5][11]
  • 4th century BC – The Attic orators use it for the banker's table, the bank.[5]
  • 2nd century BC – Polybius has δεύτεραι τράπεζαι, the second course.[5][11]
  • Modern Greek – Modern Greek τράπεζα (trápeza) means a bank, and in the Church the altar.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A table, especially a dining table.[4][5]
  2. Provision of food for guests, hospitality, the table one keeps; board, as opposed to bed.[5]
  3. The food set on the table, a meal;[5] δεύτεραι τράπεζαι, the second course.[5]
  4. The style of meals of a country, cuisine.[5]
  5. An offering table in a sanctuary.[5]
  6. A money-changer's table, a bank.[5][9]
  7. A shop counter or stall, as of a butcher.[5]

Word family

  • τραπεζεύς (trapezeús)
  • τραπέζιον (trapézion)
  • τραπεζοκόμος (trapezokómos)
  • τραπεζοποιός (trapezopoiós)
  • τραπεζίτης (trapezī́tēs)
  • τραπεζιτικός (trapezītikós)
  • τραπεζοειδής (trapezoeidḗs)
  • τραπεζοφόρος (trapezophóros)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ a b c Микенско-русский словарь (Mycenaean–Russian dictionary)
  4. ^ a b c Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  8. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  9. ^ 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
  10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  11. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge