χρώς

Forms

χρώς (khrṓs) m (genitive χρωτός or χροός); third declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][3][1] It is an old s-stem noun, and its complicated declension resembles that of ἔρως (érōs), γέλως (gélōs) and αἰδώς (aidṓs).^[2][3] The Mycenaean adjective Mycenaean Greek a-ko-ro-we-e, used of oxen, probably belongs to it, meaning “without spots” or “of one colour”.^[2][4][1]

Chantraine takes the Mycenaean form as evidence for a stem *χροϝοσ- (*khrowos-): the nominative χρώς would be contracted from *χροϝώς (*khrowṓs), and the Homeric genitive and accusative would have lost a syllable.^[4] He thinks a link with χραύω (khraúō, “to graze, scratch”) plausible but unclear.^[4] Beekes and Frisk find the likeness to this verb, χραίνω (khraínō) and χρίω (khríō, “to anoint”) too superficial for a firm etymology, and Frisk rejects the reconstruction *χραϝός (*khrawós) as made up only to reach that verb.^[2][3] Pokorny lists the word under a root Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰrēw- (“to rub, graze”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it means the skin or flesh of the human body, the surface that a weapon cuts: an arrow grazes the skin and the bronze cuts the flesh in the Iliad.^[6][7][8] Homer also uses it of the complexion, which changes colour when a man is afraid.^[6][9]

Semantic evolution

Homer and Hesiod use the older forms χροός, χροΐ, χρόα; the stem χρωτ- appears only now and then in the epics, and Attic generalised it, although the tragedians, Euripides above all, still use the epic forms.^[6][4][2] The noun is rare in comedy and Attic prose.^[6]

From the skin it came to mean the whole body (Pindar, Euripides, Aristotle) and the complexion.^[4][6]Aeschylus and Aristotle use it for colour in general, the sense that grew strongest in its derivatives, such as χρῶμα (khrôma, “colour”).^[4][6][9] The phrase ἐν χρῷ “at the skin” meant shaved close (Herodotus, Xenophon), and so, figuratively, very close to something: Thucydides uses it of ships sailing past so near as to graze, and Plutarch of fighting at close quarters.^[6][9][2]

In the Septuagint and the New Testament it is the surface of the body, the skin: in Acts handkerchiefs that had touched Paul's skin were carried to the sick.^[10][6] The word survives in Modern Greek only in a learned phrase for hair cut right down to the scalp.^[11][12]

Timeline

• 700s BC – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for the skin and flesh of the body and for the complexion.^[7][6][8]
• 7th–6th century BC – Sappho uses it of the skin, under which fire runs.^[6][13]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it for colour in general.^[6][4][13]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses ἐν χροΐ for shaving close, and Thucydides ἐν χρῷ for ships sailing close by.^[6][13]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle says that the chameleon changes its colour.^[6][13]
• 1st century AD – The Acts of the Apostles use it for the skin.^[10]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses ἐν χρῷ for fighting at close quarters.^[6][13]

Meanings

Noun

1. The skin or flesh of the human body; sometimes the whole body.^[6][9]
2. (in the phrase ἐν χρῷ, Ionic ἐν χροΐ) Down to the skin, of shaving; figuratively, very close, at close quarters.^[6][9]
3. The complexion, the colour of the skin, especially as it changes with emotion.^[6][9]
4. Colour in general, of things.^[6][9]

Related words

• χρῴζω (khrṓizō)
• χρῶμα (khrôma)

Usage notes

Homer and Hesiod always decline it with the stem χρο- (genitive χροός), except for a few forms in χρωτ-.^[6][4]Attic uses the stem χρωτ-, but keeps the dative χρῷ in the phrase ἐν χρῷ.^[6][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
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 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. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t 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 Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
9. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
10. ^ a b 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
11. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
12. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
13. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge