χῆρος

Forms

χῆρος, χήρα (Ionic χήρη), χῆρον (khêros), adjective of three endings.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is the adjective behind from Ancient Greek χήρα (khḗrā, “widow”): the feminine, used as a noun, is the old form, and the masculine χῆρος is secondary.^[3][4][5] Chantraine explains χήρα as an old adjective meaning “deprived (of a husband)”, substantivized in the feminine; in archaic thinking the notion applied only to the woman, and “widower” came later.^[4] Beekes reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₁-ro- and, like Frisk, connects it with the root of a verb “to leave”, seen in Sanskrit जहाति (jáhāti) and in κιχάνω (kikhā́nō).^[5][3] The same root of lack or emptiness is thought to be in χῆτος (khêtos, “want”), χατέω (khatéō, “to crave”) and perhaps χώρα (khṓrā).^[5][4][3] Wiktionary and Babiniotis add Latin hērēs (“heir”) as a possible cognate.^[6][7]

χήρα took the place of the inherited Indo-European word for “widow”, kept in Latin vidua; a trace of that word survives in Greek ἠΐθεος (ēḯtheos).^[5][3][6] Chantraine doubts that ἠΐθεος belongs to it.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Iliad the feminine is used with γυνή and μήτηρ for a widowed woman, and once with a genitive, “bereft of you”.^[2][1][4]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective of all genders it is mostly poetic and late: Euripides speaks of a “widowed” house, Callimachus of a widowed bed or house and of empty cattle-pens, Apollonius of Rhodes and the epigrams use it of people and places left desolate, and Strabo of men living “bereft of women”.^[2][1][5] The masculine noun, “widower”, appears in Aristotle, used of birds that have lost their mate, and in an epigram of Callimachus.^[2][4][3]

The word lives on in Modern Greek as χήρος (chíros) “widower”, beside χήρα (chíra) “widow”, both continuing the ancient words.^[8]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses the feminine of widowed women and once with a genitive, “bereft of”.^[2][1][9]
• 5th century BC – Euripides calls a house left without its mistress “widowed”.^[2][1][10]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses the masculine of male birds without a mate.^[2][4][10]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Callimachus uses it of a widowed man, a house and empty cattle-pens.^[2][1][10]
• 1st century BC to 1st century AD – Strabo writes of men living without women.^[2][10]
• Modern Greek – χήρος (chíros) means “widower”.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a woman, widowed; with a genitive, bereft of her husband.^[1][2]
2. Of a man, widowed; as a noun, a widower, also of a male bird without its mate.^[1][2]
3. (figurative) Of a house, bed or place, bereft, desolate; with a genitive, deprived of something.^[1][2]

Word family

• χήρα (khḗrā)
• χηρεύω (khēreúō)
• χηρόω (khēróō)
• χηρεία (khēreía)
• χηροσύνη (khērosúnē)

Related words

• χῆτος (khêtos)
• χατέω (khatéō)
• Latin vidua

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ a b c d e 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
6. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
7. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
10. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge