Etymologically
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ἀμέθυστος

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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)

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