χαίνω

Forms

χαίνω (khaínō) ^[1]

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *kʰan- (“to gape”),^[2] from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₂- (“to gape, yawn”), with a nasal suffix.^[2][1] The old forms are the aorist ἔχανον (ékhanon) (infinitive χανεῖν (khaneîn)) and the perfect κέχηνα (kékhēna), which has present meaning; the present χαίνω, like the future χανοῦμαι (khanoûmai), is a later Greek creation on the same stem.^[2][3] The usual classical present was χάσκω (kháskō), an old present with the suffix -σκω (-skō) that may go back to *kʰan-skō.^[2][4] Frisk thinks it unlikely that the nasal comes from an inherited nasal present, since the late χαίνω gives that theory no support.^[3]

Beekes and Frisk compare a North Germanic word, Old Norse gan (“gaping of the mouth, cry”) with the verb gana (“to gape, desire”).^[2][3] A root of the same meaning with -i- is found in Latin hiō (“to gape”) and hīscō (“to open the mouth”), Old High German ginēn (“to be wide open”) and Lithuanian žióti.^[2] Related Greek words are χάσμα (khásma) “chasm” and, perhaps, χάος (kháos).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The present χαίνω is late: LSJ's earliest example is in Philodemus, in the 1st century BC.^[4][5] The forms that dictionaries list with it are much older: Homer uses only the aorist and the perfect participle, for the earth that gapes open to swallow a man (“then may the wide earth yawn for me”, Iliad 4.182) and for a wounded man or a lion opening its mouth wide.^[4][6][7]

Semantic evolution

In classical Greek the perfect κέχηνα, “to stand open-mouthed”, is common in comedy: Aristophanes uses it of people gaping in idle wonder or eager expectation, often with πρός and the accusative of what they stare at.^[7][8] From the same picture the verb came to mean to long for something greedily, as if ready to swallow it.^[8][4] Sophocles uses the aorist for uttering words, “to open one's mouth” against someone.^[9]

The present χαίνω became usual only in Hellenistic and later Greek: Galen, the Greek Anthology and Aelian use it, and Lucian and Aelian have it with prefixes.^[4][10] Modern Greek keeps χαίνω (chaíno) as a learned word, used only in the present, of a chasm that opens before someone.^[11]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses the aorist of the earth yawning to swallow a man and the perfect participle of a wounded man with his mouth agape.^[4][6]
• 5th century BC – Aristophanes uses the perfect of people standing open-mouthed in wonder.^[7][8]
• 1st century BC – Philodemus has the first example of the present χαίνω.^[4][5]
• 2nd century AD – Galen uses the present χαίνω.^[4][5]
• 2nd–3rd century AD – Aelian uses the present with the prefix περι- (peri-).^[4][10][5]
• Modern Greek – The learned χαίνω (chaíno) survives in the present only, meaning to gape.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To gape open, yawn; of the earth, a chasm or a wound.^[4][7][8]
2. To open the mouth wide; of men, of a lion or dog baring its teeth, of a bird with open beak.^[7][4]
3. To stand open-mouthed, gawp, in wonder or expectation, with πρός and the accusative.^[7][8]
4. (figurative) To long greedily for something.^[8]
5. To open the mouth to speak; to utter, with an accusative of the words.^[9]

Word family

• χάσκω (kháskō)
• χάσμα (khásma)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 d e f g h i j k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
6. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
7. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
9. ^ a b Дворецкий, И. Х. (1958), Древнегреческо-русский словарь, Moscow: ГИС
10. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki