ἄζω

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /áz.dɔː/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈa.zo/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈa.zo/^[1]

Forms

ἄζω (ázō) ^[1]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ed-ye/o-, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ed- (“to dry”), and cognate with Hittite ḫāt- (“to dry up”).^[2][3] Frisk had compared Slavic words for drying malt, such as Czech ozditi, from *h₂esd-, but Beekes thinks the Hittite comparison more probable.^[2][1] Beekes suggests that an extended form of the same root may be found in Latin āreō (“to be dry”) and āra (“altar”).^[2] The DGE instead connects it with the root of αἴθω (aíthō, “to burn”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record is in the Iliad, where a felled poplar lies drying (passive).^[4][5][6]

Semantic evolution

In Hesiod and Alcaeus the Dog Star Sirius parches the skin; the word is rare, and almost confined to early poetry and to Nicander.^[4][6][7] The CGL also takes a Hesiodic passage about a man “parched in his heart” with grief as a figurative use of this verb, where LSJ puts it under the verb “to groan”.^[6][4]

Its derivatives were ἀζαλέος (azaléos, “dry, parched”), already in the Iliad, and the verbs ἀζάνομαι and ἀζαίνω “to parch”.^[2]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses the passive of a felled tree drying.^[4][5]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it of Sirius parching the skin.^[4][6][3]
• 7th–6th century BC – Alcaeus uses it in the same way.^[4][6][3]
• 2nd century BC – Nicander uses it.^[4][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To dry up, parch.^[4][6]
2. (passive) To be dried up, wither.^[4][6]

Usage notes

A separate verb ἄζω “to groan, sigh” (LSJ's ἄζω (B), Beekes' ἄζω 2), found in Sophocles, was formed from the interjection ἆ (â).^[4][2][8][3] An ancient grammarian derived the verb “to dry” from privative ἀ- and ζάω (záō, “to live”).^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
6. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram