ἀείδω

Forms

ᾰ̓είδω (aeídō) ^[1] The contracted form ᾄδω (áidō) is the usual one in Attic, tragedy and Plato; ἀείδω is the Epic, lyric and Ionic form.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *awéidō.^[1] Beekes takes the ablaut of the family to point to Proto-Indo-European *h₂weid-, but no cognate outside Greek is known, and LIV records the root only with a question mark.^[4][5] Within Greek it belongs with αὐδή (audḗ, “voice”) and perhaps ἀηδών (aēdṓn, “nightingale”).^[4][6]

Wackernagel derived the present from a reduplicated aorist, comparable to ἔειπον (éeipon, “I said”);^[6] LIV rejects this, and Frisk thinks a reduplicated aorist beside the noun should have had a different shape.^[6][5] Harðarson reconstructed *h₂we-h₂ud-, which Beekes finds difficult because of the loss of the laryngeal.^[4] Ancient grammarians explained it as an intensive prefix on εἴδω (eídō, “to know”), and Plutarch's grandfather Lamprias as built on /a/, the first sound a child makes.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Iliad opens with it, asking the goddess to sing of the wrath of Achilles; in Homer it means to sing, or to sing of a subject.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

From Homer on it is to sing, or to celebrate someone or something in song, and in the passive to be sung or celebrated.^[3][2] It is used of birds singing, of cocks crowing and of cicadas chirping, and in Hellenistic poetry of a stone that rings when it is struck and of a tree in the wind.^[3]

Its derivatives ἀοιδός (aoidós, “singer”) and the contracted ᾠδή (ōidḗ, “song”) gave Greek its words for the poet-singer and the ode.^[6] Modern Greek has the contracted verb as άδω (ádo).^[9]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for singing a song or a theme.^[2][8]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Theogony opens with it.^[8]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses the passive for a sanctuary filled with song.^[2][3]
• 3rd century BC – Theocritus uses it of a stone ringing when struck.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sing; with an accusative, to sing a song, hymn or poem.^[2][3]
2. To sing of, celebrate in song a god, a person or a deed; passive, to be celebrated.^[2][3]
3. (passive) Of a sanctuary, to be filled with song.^[3]
4. Of birds, to sing; of cocks, to crow; of cicadas, to chirp.^[3]
5. (figurative) Of a struck stone or a tree in the wind, to ring or sing out.^[3]

Word family

• ἀοιδή (aoidḗ)
• ἀοίδιμος (aoídimos)
• ἀοιδός (aoidós)
• ᾠδή (ōidḗ)
• ᾠδός (ōidós)
• ἄεισμα (áeisma)
• ᾆσμα (âisma)

Related words

• αὐδή (audḗ)
• ὑδέω (hudéō)
• ἀηδών (aēdṓn)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ a b c 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
5. ^ a b Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
6. ^ a b c d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
7. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
8. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
9. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας