χέρσος

Forms

χέρσος (khérsos) f (genitive χέρσου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

Wiktionary gives it as inherited from Proto-Hellenic *kʰérsos,^[1] inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰérsos, from the root *ǵʰers- (“to stand erect, bristle”).^[1] Beekes accepts this only as a possibility, and Frisk finds no certain etymology.^[2][3] The root is seen in Sanskrit हर्ष (harṣa, “excitement”), Latin horreō (“to stand erect, bristle, shudder”) and hirsūtus (“rough, bristly”).^[2][4][1] The Greek word would first have meant dry, stubbly land, and only later land as opposed to water.^[2] Wiktionary also compares Albanian djerr (“fallow land”).^[1] Chantraine adds χήρ (khḗr, “hedgehog”) to the same group.^[4]

Specht explained it instead as a form of ξηρός (xērós, “dry”) with the consonants transposed, as he did σχερός (skherós, “mainland”), and Babiniotis thinks that link less likely.^[2][3][5] The feminine gender follows that of νῆσος (nêsos, “island”) and γῆ (gê, “earth”).^[2] Frisk doubts the usual view that the noun is an older adjective with “earth” understood: in the texts the adjective is the later use.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is a noun, dry land as opposed to the sea: waves roll towards the shore and break on it, and sailors reach land.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

Pindar's proverb “ships at sea, wars on land” shows the old opposition with the sea, which tragedy kept in the dative “by land”.^[6][8] From Herodotus on it is also an adjective: dry, hard, and barren of land that bears no crop, and Sophocles applies it to childless women.^[6][8][2] Euripides uses it of an altar empty of offerings.^[8][6]

Barren or uncultivated land is its common meaning in the Septuagint and the papyri, and Hesychius glosses it as deserted, rough, unworked land.^[9][6][10] Attic had the form χέρρος (khérros), and the compound χερσόνησος (khersónēsos, “peninsula”), literally “land-island”, named the Thracian Chersonese and the Crimea.^[4]

In Modern Greek χέρσος (chérsos) is an adjective meaning untilled, of fields left to lie waste, and the learned noun “η χέρσος” is dry land as opposed to sea.^[11][12][13]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for the land where waves break, as opposed to the sea.^[6][7]
• 7th–6th century BC – Sappho uses the phrase “on land”.^[6][14]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar contrasts ships at sea with wars on land.^[6][14]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it as an adjective for dry, barren land.^[6][2][14]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it of barren, childless women.^[6][8][14]
• 2nd century BC – A papyrus uses it for barren land, as the Septuagint does.^[6][9]
• Modern Greek – It survives as an adjective meaning uncultivated.^[11][12]

Meanings

Noun

1. Dry land, as opposed to the sea; the mainland.^[6][8]
2. Barren or uncultivated land; wasteland.^[9][2][10]

Adjective

1. Of land: dry, hard; barren, bearing no crop.^[6][8]
2. (figurative) Of women: barren, childless.^[6][8]
3. Bare or empty of something; with the genitive.^[6][8]

Word family

• χερσόνησος (khersónēsos)
• χερσαῖος (khersaîos)
• χερσεύω (kherseúō)
• χέρσονδε (khérsonde)

Related words

• Latin horreō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b c 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. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ a b c Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
10. ^ a b Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
12. ^ a b Ακαδημία Αθηνών (2014), Χρηστικό Λεξικό της Νεοελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Academy of Athens
13. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
14. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge