ἀρτηρία

Forms

ᾰ̓ρτηρῐ́ᾱ (artēríā) f (genitive ᾰ̓ρτηρῐ́ᾱς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek ἀείρω (aeírō, “to bind, hang up”), like the word ἀορτή (aortḗ) with a similar meaning.^[2][3][4] Wiktionary and LSJ take it as contracted from an unattested *ἀερτηρία (*aertēría) or *ἀορτηρία (*aortēría), compare ἀορτήρ (aortḗr).^[1][5] Babiniotis likewise derives it from this verb, which also had the sense “to hang, attach”.^[6]

Ancient writers derived it from ἀήρ (āḗr, “air”) and τηρέω (tēréō, “to keep”), as the vessel that keeps the breath, because the arteries were believed to carry air rather than blood.^[7][5] Soranus also linked the variant ἀλτηρία (altēría) with ἅλλομαι (hállomai, “to leap”), because the artery seems to leap with the pulse.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Sophocles uses it in the plural for the bronchial tubes of the lungs, and the Hippocratic writings and Plato for the windpipe.^[5][8][9]

Semantic evolution

The Hippocratic writings already distinguish the arteries from the veins, and also use it for the aorta and for the ureters.^[5][6] The windpipe came to be called the “rough artery”, τραχεῖα (trakheîa) ἀρτηρία, and the physicians held that the arteries carried breath, πνεῦμα (pneûma), as the windpipe does, which may explain why the two share a name.^[5][1] Erasistratus believed the arteries held breath, and Galen speaks of “smooth” arteries.^[5] Euripides uses it for the nostril of a horse.^[8]

The Latin arteria was borrowed from it,^[10] and English artery comes from the Latin word and its Old French descendant.^[11] Medieval Greek kept the word.^[12] In Modern Greek αρτηρία (artiría) is a learned word: the blood vessel and, as a semantic loan from French artère, a main road or traffic artery.^[13] Babiniotis lists learned compounds such as Modern Greek αρτηριοσκλήρωση (artiriosklírosi), from French artériosclérose.^[6]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it for the bronchial tubes, and the Hippocratic writings for the windpipe and for the arteries as distinct from the veins.^[5][8][6]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it for the windpipe.^[5][8]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle says it is plain to the senses that the veins and arteries join each other.^[5]
• 2nd century AD – Galen distinguishes smooth arteries and calls the pulmonary vein the “vein-like artery”.^[5][3]
• Modern Greek – Modern Greek αρτηρία (artiría) is the blood vessel and also a main road.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. The windpipe, in full the “rough artery”; in the plural, the bronchial tubes.^[5][8]
2. The nostril of a horse.^[8]
3. An artery, as distinct from a vein.^[5][14]
4. The aorta.^[5]
5. (in the plural) The ureters.^[5]

Word family

• ἀρτηριακός (artēriakós)
• ἀρτηρίασις (artēríasis)
• ἀρτηριώδης (artēriṓdēs)

Related words

• ἀείρω (aeírō)
• ἀορτή (aortḗ)
• Latin arteria
• English artery

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
4. ^ 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
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
7. ^ a b Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
8. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
10. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
11. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
13. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
14. ^ 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