Etymologically
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ἀραιός

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /a.rai̯.ós/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /a.rɛˈos/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /a.reˈos/[1]

Forms

ᾰ̓ραιός (araiós) m (feminine ᾰ̓ραιᾱ́, neuter ᾰ̓ραιόν); first/second declension[1]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.[2][3][4][5] Homeric metre shows that it began with a digamma, so its older form was *ϝαραιός (*waraiós), but no explanation has been found.[3][5][2] Specht's derivation from a form related to ῥᾷστος (rhâistos, “easiest”) does not convince Frisk, and the comparison with the Hesychius gloss ἀρβός (arbós, “spaced, thin, light”) is very uncertain.[4][2]

Ancient scholars linked it with other words: Aristarchus with ῥαίω (rhaíō, “to break”), and Eustathius with ἀρά (ará, “curse”).[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Homer on, of slender, thin limbs (legs, a hand), the slim tongues of wolves, and the narrow entrance of a harbour.[7][8]

Semantic evolution

Hesiod uses it of light, narrow ships, and Xenophon of a thin battle line, as opposed to a deep one.[8][9] Aristotle speaks of a meagre diet.[8][9] From the early philosophers on (Anaximenes, Anaxagoras, Empedocles) and above all in the Hippocratic writings it became a technical term for loose, porous texture, the opposite of πυκνός (puknós) “dense”, said of skin, bones, wool, mist and soil.[8][3] Chantraine adds the senses “intermittent” and “infrequent”.[3] The abstract ἀραιότης (araiótēs) “looseness” and the verb ἀραιόω (araióō) “to make loose” belong to this scientific use.[4]

The word was still used in Medieval Greek for what is not dense, and survives as Modern Greek αραιός (araiós), “sparse, thin, infrequent”, the opposite of πυκνός.[10][11]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad uses it of slender legs and hands, the Odyssey of a narrow harbour entrance.[7][8]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it of ships.[8][12]
  • 6th–5th century BC – Anaximenes and Anaxagoras use it of loose, rarefied matter.[8][3]
  • 5th–4th century BC – The Hippocratic writings use it often of porous tissues, and Xenophon of a thin battle line.[8][9]
  • 4th century BC – Aristotle speaks of a meagre diet.[8][9]
  • Modern Greek – It means “sparse, thin, infrequent”.[11]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Slender, thin, of limbs, tongues or trees.[8][9]
  2. Narrow, of ships or a harbour entrance.[8][9]
  3. Thin, not deep, of a line of soldiers.[8][9]
  4. Of loose or porous texture, rarefied; opposed to πυκνός (puknós).[8][3]
  5. Meagre, scanty, of diet.[8][9]
  6. Light, faint, of a breeze or a voice.[9]

Word family

  • ἀραιότης (araiótēs)
  • ἀραιά (araiá)
  • ἀραιόω (araióō)
  • ἀραίωσις (araíōsis)
  • πυκνός (puknós)

References

  1. ^ a b c d 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 d e f 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
  4. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  5. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  6. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
  7. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  10. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  12. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux