ἀμέθυστος

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /a.mé.tʰys.tos/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /aˈme.θys.tos/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /aˈme.θys.tos/^[1]

Forms

ᾰ̓μέθῠστος (améthustos) m or f (neuter ᾰ̓μέθῠστον); second declension^[1]

Etymology

Beekes and Frisk explain it as the privative prefix with μέθυ (méthu, “wine”), or with the verb μεθύω (methúō, “to be drunk”): “not drunken”.^[2][3][1] The stone was named after its colour, that of red wine so diluted with water that it no longer makes one drunk, as Clausing argued.^[2][3][4] Others hold that it was named because it was believed to prevent drunkenness.^[1] The DGE does not find the derivation from μέθυ convincing and thinks it probably a popular etymology of a Semitic loanword, comparing Arabic.^[5]

Μέθυ is inherited, from Proto-Indo-European *médʰu (“honey, mead”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is an inventory from Delos of the 3rd century BC, which lists a ring with an amethyst.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

The adjective “not drunk, sober” and the noun for a remedy against drunkenness are found in Plutarch, Dioscorides and Athenaeus; the name was also given to a plant used against drunkenness.^[6][5][3] As the stone, it is one of the twelve on the high priest's breastplate in the Septuagint and one of the foundations of the heavenly Jerusalem in Revelation.^[7][4] Epigrams play on the stone and the sense “not drunk”, as in the one for an amethyst carved with the figure of Methe, “Drunkenness”.^[5]

Latin borrowed it as amethystus.^[1] Medieval and Modern Greek αμέθυστος (améthystos) is the stone, and as an adjective a learned word for “not drunk”.^[8][9]

Timeline

• 3rd century BC – An inventory from Delos lists a ring with an amethyst.^[5][6]
• 3rd–1st century BC – The Septuagint lists the amethyst among the stones of the high priest's breastplate.^[7]
• 1st century AD – Dioscorides uses the neuter for a remedy against drunkenness.^[6][5]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses the adjective for “sober” and the noun for a plant.^[6][5]
• 1st century AD – Revelation names the amethyst as the twelfth foundation stone of the new Jerusalem.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not drunk, sober.^[6][5]
2. Not intoxicating.^[6][5]

Noun

1. A remedy against drunkenness.^[6][5]
2. A plant used against drunkenness.^[6][5]
3. The amethyst.^[6][7]

Word family

• ἀμέθυσον (améthuson)
• ἀμεθύστινος (amethústinos)
• ἀμεθυστίζων (amethustízōn)

Related words

• μέθυ (méthu)
• μεθύω (methúō)
• Latin amethystus
• English amethyst

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
8. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
9. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki