Etymologically
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ἀσπίς

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /as.pís/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /asˈpis/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /asˈpis/[1]

Forms

ᾰ̓σπῐ́ς (aspís) f (genitive ᾰ̓σπῐ́δος); third declension[1]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.[2][3] Bechtel explained it as a compound meaning “the surface spread along the fighter”, related to σπίδιος (spídios, “wide”), but Beekes calls this almost certainly wrong and Frisk unconvincing.[2][3] A comparison with Lithuanian skỹdas (“shield”) is improbable, and Fraenkel considers the Lithuanian word a loan from Germanic.[2][3] The idea that it was a tree name, related to Old High German aspa (“aspen”), fails because that word originally had -ps-, not -sp-.[3][2] Frisk and Beekes suggest that the round shield, unlike the native σάκος (sákos), may have been taken over from a foreign people together with its name, as many weapons were.[3][2] Wiktionary reports Melchert's derivation from Proto-Indo-European *h₂esp- (“to cut”), the root of Latin asper (“rough”) and Hittite ḫasp- (“to cut down”).[1]

The snake is probably the same word, named after the shield-like hood the cobra spreads when it attacks, rather than a loan.[2][3][1] Rosół rejects the derivation from a Hebrew snake name proposed by Lewy.[4]

Ancient grammarians derived it from the privative ἀ- (a-) and a verb meaning “to stretch”, as a thing that goes round the body and need not be long.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is the shield, the round shield as opposed to the σάκος (sákos).[2][6][7]

Semantic evolution

Classical writers use it collectively for a body of men-at-arms, counting soldiers as “shields”, and for the left side of a soldier or an army, the side that carried the shield.[7][8] Xenophon contrasts it with the Thracian πέλτη (péltē) and the Persian γέρρον (gérrhon), and to throw away one's shield was a byword for cowardice from Anacreon on.[7]

From Herodotus on the word also names the Egyptian cobra, the asp.[2][8] The Septuagint uses it for both the shield and the asp, and Paul quotes the Psalms on the venom of asps.[9][10] It was borrowed as Latin aspis.[11]

Modern Greek ασπίδα (aspída) comes from the ancient accusative through medieval Greek; it means both the shield and the snake, and figuratively protection, a sense modelled on French bouclier and English shield.[12][13]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for the shield.[6][7]
  • 6th century BC – Anacreon speaks of throwing away the shield.[7][14]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for the Egyptian cobra.[2][8][14]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Xenophon uses it for the shield-side, the left.[8][14]
  • 1st century AD – Paul's Letter to the Romans quotes the venom of asps.[10]
  • Modern Greek – Modern Greek ασπίδα (aspída) is a learned form of the ancient accusative.[12]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A shield, usually round.[7][8][2]
  2. (collective) A body of men-at-arms.[7][8]
  3. The shield-side, the left of a soldier or an army.[8]
  4. The asp, the Egyptian cobra; any venomous snake.[8][2][10]

Word family

  • ἀσπιδιώτης (aspidiṓtēs)
  • ἀσπιστής (aspistḗs)
  • φέρασπις (phéraspis)
  • ἀσπιδοχελώνη (aspidokhelṓnē)
  • Latin aspis
  • English asp

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  4. ^ Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
  5. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
  6. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  9. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
  10. ^ 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
  11. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  12. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  13. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  14. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge