ἀήρ

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /aː.ɛ̌ːr/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /aˈir/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /aˈir/^[1]

Forms

ᾱ̓ήρ (āḗr) m or f (genitive ᾱ̓έρος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is disputed.^[2][3] Beekes follows Kiparsky in deriving it from *auhḗr (“morning mist”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewsér, from *h₂ews- (“dawn”); the related αὔρα (aúrā) still means “morning mist” in Odyssey 5.469, and Latin aurōra (“dawn”) is cognate.^[2][1] Meillet derived it instead from ἀείρω (aeírō, “to raise”), as “suspension”, but that leaves the long initial vowel unexplained.^[2][3] It is not related to ἄημι (áēmi, “to blow”).^[2][3] Frisk calls it a root noun of unknown origin.^[3]

The nominative ἀήρ arose by dissimilation, beside Homeric genitive ἠέρος (ēéros);^[2] Aeolic has αὔηρ (aúēr) and Doric, according to Hesychius, ἀβήρ (abḗr).^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer and Hesiod it always means mist or haze, never the air: in the Iliad Aphrodite hides Paris “in thick mist” (3.381), and a tall fir reaches “through the mist to the upper air” (14.288).^[4][5][3]

Semantic evolution

Homer and Hesiod treat it as feminine; from Herodotus on it is masculine.^[4] Ionic and Attic writers used it for the lower air, the atmosphere, as opposed to the bright upper air, αἰθήρ (aithḗr).^[3][4] It also meant wind, empty space, and the blue or grey colour of the sky.^[1]

Latin borrowed it as aer.^[6][1] Medieval Greek used the form αέρας,^[7] which is the modern word.^[1] English aero- comes from it.^[8]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for mist.^[4][5]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it for haze.^[4][3]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it as a masculine noun.^[4][5]
• Medieval – Vernacular Greek has αέρας.^[7]
• 20th century – English aero- is used of aviation.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Homer, Hesiod) Mist, haze.^[4][1]
2. The air, the lower atmosphere.^[3][1]
3. Wind.^[1]
4. Space, volume.^[1]
5. The blue or grey of the sky.^[1]

Word family

• ἠερόεις (ēeróeis)
• ἀέριος (āérios)
• ἀερόπλανος (āeróplanos)
• ἀεροπόρος (āeropóros)

Related words

• αἰθήρ (aithḗr)
• αὔρα (aúrā)
• Latin aer
• English aero-

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 e f g h Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
6. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
7. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com