χήν
Pronunciation
Forms
χήν (khḗn) m or f (genitive χηνός); third declension[1] Doric and Boeotian χάν (khán), genitive χανός (khanós).[2][3] Mycenaean genitive plural Mycenaean Greek ka-no, dative plural Mycenaean Greek ka-si.[2]
Etymology
It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *kʰā́n, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₂éns (“goose”).[1][2] The nominative plural χῆνες (khênes) matches the Germanic and Baltic plurals, as in Old English gēs (“geese”) and Old Norse gæss, from *ǵʰans-es.[2] Greek turned the old s-stem into an n-stem, and the nominative χήν (khḗn) replaced an expected *χᾱ́ς (*khā́s) from *χάνς (*kháns).[2] Since Proto-Indo-European had no phoneme /a/, the a of Sanskrit and the other languages comes from a laryngeal, *ǵʰh₂en-s-.[2]
Cognate with Sanskrit हंस (haṃsá), Latin ānser, Russian гусь (gusʹ), Old High German gans, Old English gōs and Lithuanian žąsìs, all meaning “goose”.[2][1][4] A connection with χανεῖν (khaneîn, “to gape”), or an imitative origin, has been considered, but Babiniotis thinks the first unlikely.[2][5]
Earliest recorded meaning
Mycenaean tablets have the word in the genitive plural ka-no and the dative plural ka-si.[2] In Homer it is a wild goose in the similes of the Iliad and a tame goose kept in the house and fed on wheat in the Odyssey.[6][4]
Semantic evolution
The word covered both the wild and the farmyard goose.[3][6] Herodotus names the Egyptian “fox-goose”, χηναλώπηξ (khēnalṓpēx).[2] Socrates swore “by the goose”, an oath Aristophanes mentions.[4][3] Eubulus speaks of goose milk as an unheard-of luxury, and Plutarch mentions goose livers.[4][7] A small curved part at the stern of a ship was called the “little goose”, χηνίσκος (khēnískos).[2]
Medieval Greek made it a first-declension noun from the accusative χῆνα (khêna), which gave Modern Greek χήνα (chína); it also means a foolish person, especially a woman.[8][5]
Timeline
- Mycenaean – Linear B tablets have the genitive plural ka-no and the dative plural ka-si.[2]
- Homer – The Iliad has wild geese in its similes, and the Odyssey tame geese kept at home.[6][4]
- 5th century BC – Herodotus names the Egyptian fox-goose.[2][9]
- 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes mentions Socrates' oath “by the goose”.[4][3][9]
- Medieval Greek – The noun becomes χήνα (chína), built on the ancient accusative.[8]
Meanings
Noun
Word family
- χηναλώπηξ (khēnalṓpēx)
- χηνίσκος (khēnískos)
- χήνειος (khḗneios)
- χηνίζω (khēnízō)
Related words
Usage notes
The oath “by the goose” (μὰ τὸν χῆνα) was attributed to Socrates.[4][7]
References
- ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- ^ a b c d e f g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
- ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
- ^ a b Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli
- ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
- ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge