ἀράχνη

Forms

ᾰ̓ρᾰ́χνη (arákhnē) f (genitive ᾰ̓ρᾰ́χνης); first declension^[1] Doric ἀράχνᾱ (arákhnā).^[2] A Mycenaean form Mycenaean Greek a-wa-ra-ka-na has been compared, with doubt.^[3]

Etymology

Beekes and Frisk reconstruct it as *ἀρακσνᾱ (*araksnā), which matches Latin arāneus (“spider”) and arānea (“spider's web”) closely.^[4][5][6] Because the word does not look Indo-European and is found only in these two languages, Beekes takes it to be a borrowing from a Mediterranean language.^[4] Wiktionary takes it to be from Pre-Greek, and leaves open whether Latin took the word from Greek or both took it from a third source.^[1] Chantraine notes that this name of a small, unpleasant animal has few relatives elsewhere in Indo-European.^[6]

A connection with ἄρκυς (árkus, “net”) is impossible in Indo-European terms according to Beekes, and Frisk thinks it unlikely;^[4][5] Chantraine allows it as possible but unprovable.^[6] Ancient writers derived the word from ἀναρριχάομαι (anarrikháomai, “to clamber up”), or explained it as the creature with thin footsteps, from ἀραιός (araiós, “thin”) and ἴχνος (íkhnos, “footstep”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The feminine is first found in Aeschylus' Agamemnon, in the phrase “in a spider's web”, where it means the spider itself.^[8][3][9]

Semantic evolution

For the animal, early poetry mostly used the masculine ἀράχνης (arákhnēs), from Hesiod and Pindar on.^[6][8] The grammarians later drew a distinction: the feminine ἀράχνη, like the neuter ἀράχνιον (arákhnion), was the web, and the masculine the animal; in practice the feminine is used for both.^[10][11][3] Sophocles and the Hippocratic treatise On the Heart use it for the web, and medical writers compare fine membranes in the heart and the eye to cobwebs.^[8][3] Aristotle speaks of meadow spiders.^[8][3] By resemblance it also named a plant, the cow parsnip, and a kind of sundial.^[8][3]

The Septuagint uses it for the spider and its web, in Isaiah, Job and the Psalms.^[12] John Chrysostom calls the present life a cobweb and a shadow.^[3] Medieval vernacular Greek kept both senses,^[13] and Modern Greek αράχνη (aráchni) is the spider and its web.^[14] Pontic and Tsakonian forms continue it, and the Pontic word was borrowed into Laz and Turkish.^[1] Saalfeld lists Latin arānea among the Latin words taken from Greek.^[15] English arachnoid (1789) comes, through Modern Latin, from ἀραχνοειδής (arakhnoeidḗs, “cobweb-like”), and arachnid (1854) from French or Modern Latin names formed on the Greek word.^[16]

Timeline

• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses the masculine ἀράχνης (arákhnēs) for the spider.^[6][8]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses the feminine for the spider.^[8][3]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles and the Hippocratic On the Heart use it for the web.^[8][3]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle writes of meadow spiders.^[8][3]
• 1st century BC – Vitruvius, writing in Latin, names a kind of sundial with it.^[8][3]
• 2nd century AD – Galen uses the plural for thin lines.^[8]
• 1789 – English arachnoid is first recorded.^[16]
• 1854 – English arachnid is first recorded.^[16]
• Modern Greek – Modern Greek αράχνη (aráchni) means the spider and its web.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A spider.^[8][3]
2. A spider's web, a cobweb; in medicine, a comparison for fine membranes.^[8][3]
3. (in the plural) Thin lines.^[8]
4. (botany) The cow parsnip, Heracleum sphondylium.^[8][3][1]
5. A kind of sundial.^[8][3]

Word family

• ἀραχνοειδής (arakhnoeidḗs)
• ἀραχνώδης (arakhnṓdēs)
• συναραχνόομαι (sunarakhnóomai)

Related words

• ἀράχνης (arákhnēs)
• ἀράχνιον (arákhnion)
• Latin arānea
• English arachnid
• English arachnoid

Usage notes

Ammonius distinguishes the feminine ἀράχνη and the neuter ἀράχνιον (arákhnion), the web, from the masculine ἀράχνης (arákhnēs), the animal.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ a b c d e 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
7. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
10. ^ a b [Ammonius], De adfinium vocabulorum differentia, ed. K. Nickau (Leipzig: Teubner, 1966)
11. ^ Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
12. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
13. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
14. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
15. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
16. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com