τριήρης

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /tri.ɛ̌ː.rɛːs/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /triˈi.ris/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /triˈi.ris/^[1]

Forms

τρῐήρης (triḗrēs) m or f (neuter τρῐῆρες); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is a compound from Ancient Greek τρι- (tri-, “three”) + ἐρέτης (erétēs, “rower”), literally a “three-rower” (ship).^[1][2] The second part keeps a trace of the old verb “to row”, Proto-Indo-European *h₁erh₁-, with the lengthening usual in compounds (ε > η) and an ending taken from the s-stems; the same verb lies behind ἐρέτης (erétēs).^[3][4] It was replaced in Greek by ἐρέσσω (eréssō), but survives in Lithuanian ìrti (“to row”), Old Norse róa and Latin rēmus (“oar”).^[3][4] A Lesbian gloss in Hesychius, τέρρητον (térrēton), may be a shortened form of the same word.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Hipponax, in the 6th century BC, for the trireme, the warship with oars in three tiers.^[5][2][6]

Semantic evolution

It was the principal Greek warship of the 5th century BC, and the word is common in Herodotus, Thucydides, Aristophanes and the Attic orators.^[5][7] The noun ναῦς “ship” is understood with it.^[8][2] Liddell–Scott take it to be a galley with three men to a bench, each pulling one oar, while the Cambridge lexicon describes its oars as set in three tiers.^[8][5] Athenian naval inventories list triremes of many kinds, including horse transports.^[8]

The comic poet Antiphanes uses the word for a ship-shaped drinking cup, and the rhetor Aristides as an adjective for houses three storeys high.^[8] It was borrowed as Latin trieris.^[9] Modern Greek τριήρης (triíris) is a learned word for the ancient warship.^[10][2]

Timeline

• 6th century BC – Hipponax uses it.^[5][2][6]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus and Thucydides use it of warships.^[8][7][6]
• 4th century BC – Antiphanes uses it for a ship-shaped cup, and Athenian inventories record triremes.^[8][6]
• 2nd century AD – Aristides uses it as an adjective, of houses three storeys high.^[8][6]
• Modern Greek – Modern Greek τριήρης (triíris) is a learned word for the ancient warship.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A trireme, a warship with three banks of oars.^[8][5]
2. A drinking cup shaped like a ship.^[8]
3. (as an adjective) Of houses, three storeys high.^[8]

Related words

• Latin trieris

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
3. ^ a b c 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
4. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
7. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki