χόρτος

Forms

χόρτος (khórtos) m (genitive χόρτου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰórtos (“enclosure”).^[1][2] It corresponds exactly to an Italic and Celtic word: Latin hortus (“garden”), Oscan húrz (“enclosure”), Welsh garth (“enclosure, field”) and Old Irish gort (“field”).^[2][3] These three branches point to *ǵʰorto-.^[2]

Words in other branches go back to a form *ǵʰordʰ-: Old Church Slavonic градъ (gradŭ, “city, garden”), Russian город (górod, “town”), Lithuanian gar̃das (“pen”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌳𐍃 (gards, “house”), Old Norse garðr (“fence, enclosure”) and Old English ġeard (“yard”).^[2][1] That form would have given *κόρθος (*kórthos), so it is not the source of χόρτος.^[2] The form with -t- is generally taken as a derivative of a verb meaning “to seize, grasp”, but Beekes notes that the o-grade of the root is unexpected.^[2] Some place names of Anatolia and the eastern Mediterranean, among them Cretan Γόρτυς (Górtus), have been traced to this word.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Iliad it is the enclosed farmyard where the cattle are kept: “in the yard of the court”.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The enclosure was a feeding place, so the word came to mean pasture.^[3][2] Pindar's “pastures of the lion” are Nemea, and Euripides speaks of wooded pastures.^[3][4] Hesiod and the Ionic and Attic writers use it for fodder and for grass, and Xenophon for hay.^[2][4][3] It was the food of animals, as opposed to σῖτος (sîtos), the food of people, and Hipponax uses it for a slave's poor fare.^[3][4] Plutarch translates the Latin proverb about the hay on the horn of a dangerous ox with it.^[3]

In the New Testament it is the green grass of the field and the young blade of corn, and hay as a poor building material.^[5][4] Medieval Greek made it a neuter, χόρτον (khórton), from which come Modern Greek χόρτο (chórto, “grass, hay”) and the diminutive Modern Greek χορτάρι (chortári, “grass”).^[6][7]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for the enclosed farmyard.^[3][4]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it for grass and fodder.^[3][4][8]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses the plural for the pastures of Nemea.^[3][8]
• 5th–4th century BC – Xenophon uses it for hay.^[3][8]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for the grass of the field.^[5]
• Medieval Greek – It becomes the neuter χόρτον (khórton), the source of Modern Greek χόρτο (chórto).^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. An enclosure, a farmyard.^[3][4][2]
2. (chiefly in the plural) A pasture, grazing ground.^[3][4]
3. Fodder, provender for horses and cattle.^[3][4]
4. (poetic) Food in general.^[3]
5. Grass; hay.^[3][4][5]
6. (New Testament) The young blade of grain.^[5][4]
7. (papyri) A green crop.^[3]

Word family

• χορτάζω (khortázō)
• χορταῖος (khortaîos)
• χορτίον (khortíon)
• χορτώδης (khortṓdēs)

Related words

• Latin hortus
• English yard
• English garden

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c d 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
6. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
7. ^ Heggarty, Paul, et al. (2023), Indo-European Cognate Relationships (IE-CoR), Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, https://iecor.clld.org
8. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge