Etymologically
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ἀραρίσκω

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /a.ra.rís.kɔː/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /a.raˈris.ko/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /a.raˈris.ko/[1]

Forms

ᾰ̓ρᾰρῐ́σκω (ararískō) [1] Mycenaean has the perfect participle in Mycenaean Greek a-ra-ru-ja and Mycenaean Greek a-ra-ru-wo-a.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂er- (“to fit”), with the present suffix -σκω (-skō).[4][1][2] The present is a late formation built on the reduplicated aorist ἀραρεῖν (arareîn); beside it stands an old perfect ἄραρα (árāra), which has an intransitive sense.[4][3] Wiktionary reports Jasanoff's view that the present may have been shaped after εὑρίσκω (heurískō), which also has a reduplicated aorist.[1]

The closest cognate is the Armenian aorist Old Armenian արարի (arari, “I made”), which is also reduplicated;[4][3][1] Kocharov instead matches the Armenian with the Greek form ἀρήρη (arḗrē), which would leave the Greek reduplicated aorist isolated.[1] The root also appears in Sanskrit ऋत (ṛtá, “order”).[4][1] Kloekhorst connects Hittite āra- (“proper”) through an o-grade form.[4] Within Greek the DGE lists ἀριθμός (arithmós), ἀρτύς (artús) and ἄρθρον (árthron) among the derivatives of the root.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The perfect participle is already found on the Mycenaean tablets, in the feminine and the neuter plural.[3][2] In Homer the verb means to fit things together or into place: to fix together the horns of a bow, to fit the rafters of a roof or a wall of close-set stones, to equip a ship with rowers.[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

The verb belongs almost wholly to poetry, from the Iliad on; the present itself is rare, and the forms in use are the aorists and the perfect.[3][6] The transitive aorists mean to fit, join, construct, equip or furnish, and by extension to please or satisfy (“he satisfied his heart with food”).[6][5] The intransitive perfect means to be fixed or to fit closely: a close-fitting belt, gates firmly fitted, a city furnished with towers.[6][7]

Tragedy keeps the perfect in a figurative sense, as when Euripides says that trust in the gods is no longer firm.[6] Prose hardly uses the verb: LSJ notes only a compound in Xenophon.[6] Its Hellenistic users are poets such as Theocritus and Apollonius of Rhodes.[5][6]

Timeline

  • Mycenaean – Perfect participles of the verb appear on the Linear B tablets.[2][3]
  • Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it of fitting, building and equipping, and the perfect of things firmly fitted.[7][6]
  • before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses the perfect participle and a middle aorist of the god who builds a shield.[5][2][8]
  • 5th century BC – Sophocles and Euripides use the perfect figuratively, of what is firm or settled.[6][2]
  • 3rd century BC – Apollonius of Rhodes uses it of an entablature fitted on columns.[5][2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To attach or fit one thing onto another; to fit on lids or boots.[5][6]
  2. To fix together, join; of soldiers, to link their shields together.[5][6]
  3. To construct by fitting together: a wall, a shield.[5][6]
  4. To fit out, equip, furnish with something.[6][5]
  5. To contrive, prepare (a fate for someone).[6]
  6. To please, gratify.[6]
  7. (perfect, intransitive) To be fixed, fit closely, be firmly set; to be furnished with something.[6][5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  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 d e 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 c d e f g h i j Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  8. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux