χήρα

Forms

χήρᾱ (khḗrā) f (genitive χήρᾱς); first declension^[1] Ionic and epic χήρη (khḗrē).^[2][3] The masculine χῆρος (khêros), “widower”, is later.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is the feminine of an old adjective meaning “bereft”, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₁ro-.^[3][1][4] Beekes and Frisk connect it with χῶρος (khôros) and χώρα (khṓrā), from the o-grade *ǵʰoh₁-reh₂-, with χῆτος (khêtos) “lack” (dative χήτει (khḗtei)) and with χατέω (khatéō), and derive them all from a verb meaning “to leave”, seen in Sanskrit जहाति (jáhāti, “leaves”) and in Greek κιχάνω (kikhánō).^[3][5][6] Wiktionary and Babiniotis also compare Latin hērēs (“heir”), which Babiniotis gives only as possible.^[1][7] Frisk notes a hesitant comparison with Albanian i gjorë (“wretched”).^[5]

It replaced the inherited Indo-European word for “widow”, *h₁widʰéwh₂, continued in Latin vidua and English widow,^[3][7] and Greek kept a trace of it in ἠΐθεος (ēḯtheos), “unmarried youth”.^[3][5][1]

Ancient grammarians derived it from χαρά (khará, “joy”) by antiphrasis, the woman without joy, or from a verb χῶ, “to make room”, as the one bereft of her husband.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from the Iliad on, in the Ionic form χήρη: Andromache tells Hector that she will soon be his widow (6.408), and the poem speaks of “widowed women” and a widowed mother.^[2][10][11]

Semantic evolution

Sophocles and Euripides use it in tragedy, and Lysias speaks of women “made widows” by war.^[2][12] At Stymphalus Hera was worshipped as “the Widow”, and a comic poet calls a dish without sauce a “widowed” one.^[2] Hesychius defines the widow as a woman who no longer lives with a husband after marriage, deprived of him.^[13] Only later was a masculine χῆρος (khêros) formed, used by Aristotle of birds and by Callimachus of a man.^[2][4]

The Septuagint uses it about seventy times, chiefly for Hebrew אַלְמָנָה, often beside the orphan as the type of the needy.^[14][15] In the New Testament, besides the widow as such, it names an order of widows in the Christian communities, which only widows meeting certain conditions could join, and in Revelation Babylon boasts that she is “no widow”.^[12][15] Coptic borrowed the word as ⲭⲏⲣⲁ.^[16]

The word has continued without a break: Modern Greek χήρα (chíra) is a widow, with a masculine χήρος (chíros), and in Pontic Greek it is χ̌έρα.^[17][1] Modern expressions include the calques “merry widow”, after the German title Die lustige Witwe (1905), and “black widow”, for the spider, after English.^[18]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses χήρη (khḗrē) for a widow and as an adjective, “widowed”.^[2][11]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles and Euripides use it in tragedy.^[2][12][19]
• 5th–4th century BC – Lysias speaks of women “made widows”.^[2][19]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses the masculine χῆρος (khêros) of birds that have lost a mate.^[2][19]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for the widow and for an order of widows in the church.^[12][15]
• 2nd century AD – Pausanias reports that Hera was called “the Widow” at Stymphalus.^[2][19]
• About AD 300 – The earliest Coptic manuscript with the borrowing ⲭⲏⲣⲁ is dated.^[16]
• 9th century AD – Choeroboscus derives it from χαρά (khará), “joy”, by antiphrasis.^[8]
• Modern Greek – χήρα (chíra) still means “widow”.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. A widow, a woman whose husband has died; with γυνή or μήτηρ, as an adjective, “widowed”.^[2][12][20]
2. (Christianity) A member of the order of widows in the early Christian communities.^[12][15]
3. (figurative) A city or land left desolate.^[15][21]
4. (comedy) Of a dish: “widowed”, served without sauce.^[2]
5. A title of Ἥρα (Hḗrā) at Stymphalus.^[2]

Word family

• χῆρος (khêros)
• χηρεύω (khēreúō)
• χηρόω (khēróō)
• χηροσύνη (khērosúnē)

Related words

• χώρα (khṓrā)
• χατέω (khatéō)
• κιχάνω (kikhánō)
• ἠΐθεος (ēḯtheos)

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 i j k l m n Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
5. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
7. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
8. ^ a b Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
9. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1889), An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
12. ^ a b c d e f 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
13. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
14. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
15. ^ a b c d e Abbott-Smith, G. (1922), A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark
16. ^ a b Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
17. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
18. ^ Ακαδημία Αθηνών (2014), Χρηστικό Λεξικό της Νεοελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Academy of Athens
19. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
20. ^ Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
21. ^ Thayer, Joseph Henry (1889), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, New York: American Book Company