ψηλαφάω

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /psɛː.la.pʰá.ɔː/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /psi.laˈɸa.o/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /psi.laˈfa.o/^[1]

Forms

ψηλᾰφᾰ́ω (psēlapháō) ^[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2] Fick explained it as a fusion from Ancient Greek ψάλλω (psállō, “to pluck, twitch”) + ἀφάω (apháō, “to handle”), with the first verb in its aorist form ψῆλαι (psêlai), a type of compound that Schwyzer compared with forms like στρεφεδίνηθεν (strephedínēthen).^[2][3][1] Frisk and Beekes object that it is unclear why the aorist would have been used, while Chantraine does not find this objection decisive and calls the verb an expressive word whose exact debt to ψάλλω (psállō) and ἀφάω (apháō) is hard to define.^[3][2][4]

Bechtel saw instead an unattested noun *ψάλα (*psála) in the first part, comparing μηλαφάω (mēlapháō, “to touch with the probe”), but Beekes, Frisk and Chantraine think that rare verb was rather made after ψηλαφάω.^[2][3][4] If ⟨-αφ-⟩ is a suffix rather than the verb “handle”, Beekes allows that the word could be Pre-Greek.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Odyssey the blinded Cyclops gropes about with his hands, χερσὶ ψηλαφόων.^[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Attic the word kept the image of a blind person groping in the dark, often figuratively: Aristophanes' characters “grope after” affairs as if in darkness, and Plato compares people who look for causes to men feeling their way in the dark.^[6][8] Xenophon uses the passive of a horse's body being stroked, and Polybius of examining something carefully.^[8]

In the New Testament the risen Christ tells the disciples to touch him, and Acts speaks of people reaching out for God as if groping for him.^[9][8][6] Derivatives include ψηλάφησις (psēláphēsis) “touching, palpation”, used in Hippocratic medicine, and the game ψηλαφίνδα (psēlaphínda) “blind man's buff”.^[3]

Modern Greek ψηλαφώ (psilafó) (also ψηλαφίζω (psilafízo)) is a learned continuation of the ancient verb and means to feel with the fingertips, as a doctor does, or to grope for something unseen.^[10][7]

Timeline

• Homer – The Odyssey uses the participle of the blinded Cyclops groping with his hands.^[5][6]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes and Plato use it of groping in the dark, literally and figuratively.^[6][8][11]
• 5th–4th century BC – Xenophon uses it of stroking a horse.^[8][11]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it of examining something.^[8][11]
• 1st century AD – In the New Testament it is used of touching the risen Christ and of seeking God.^[9][8]
• Modern Greek – It survives as a learned word, ψηλαφώ, “to feel, palpate”.^[10][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To grope about, feel one's way, as in the dark or when blind.^[6][8]
2. (figurative) To grope after, search for something one cannot see clearly.^[6][8]
3. To touch, feel or handle, and in the passive, to be stroked.^[6][8]
4. (New Testament) To touch with the hands; figuratively, to reach out for God.^[8][9]
5. To examine, probe.^[8][2]

Word family

• ἐπιψηλαφάω (epipsēlapháō)
• ψηλάφημα (psēláphēma)
• ψηλάφησις (psēláphēsis)
• ψηλαφητός (psēlaphētós)

Related words

• ψάλλω (psállō)
• ἀφάω (apháō)

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b 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 Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b c 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
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge