ἄνθος

Forms

ᾰ̓́νθος (ánthos) n (genitive ᾰ̓́νθεος or ᾰ̓́νθους); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *ántʰos, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éndʰos.^[1] It has long been equated with Sanskrit अन्धस् (ándhas-, “sprout of the soma plant”), an s-stem of the same shape,^[2][3] but Beekes notes the objections raised by Burrow and Chantraine, and the DGE observes that the Vedic sense “plant” is not certain.^[2][4] Less certain still are Albanian endë (“flour”) and Old Armenian անդ (and, “field”).^[2][1] Beekes finds a link with ἀνήνοθεν (anḗnothen) improbable, and the DGE prefers to keep ἀνθέριξ (anthérix) apart.^[2][4]

Ancient writers derived it from ἄνω (ánō, “upwards”) and θέω (théō, “to run”), because a flower “runs upward” as it grows.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Iliad it is already the blossom of spring that bees fly to.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

From the flower the word passed early to the bloom of youth: Homer speaks of the “flower of youth”, a phrase that Solon, Pindar and Aeschylus take up.^[6][8] In Aeschylus and Sophocles it is also the height of anything, bad as well as good, such as the peak of love or of madness.^[6] It meant brightness or lustre too: the sheen of gold in Theognis, the hue of purple dye in Plato and Aristotle.^[6][8] Hippocratic medicine used it for an eruption on the skin, and later writers for the froth on wine.^[6] Plato uses the plural for flowers embroidered on garments.^[6]

In the Septuagint it is a blossom and a shoot, and in the New Testament the flower of the grass is an image of what does not last (James 1:10, after Isaiah).^[9][10] Chantraine notes some thirty compounds in ἀνθο-, among them ἀνθολογία (anthología), the gathering of flowers, which came to mean an anthology.^[11] English anther comes, through French or Modern Latin, from the derived adjective ἀνθηρός (anthērós, “flowery”).^[12]

Medieval vernacular Greek kept the word, beside a masculine Byzantine Greek ανθός (anthós) with a new gender and accent.^[13] Modern Greek has the learned άνθος (ánthos), some of whose senses are modelled on French fleur, and the literary Modern Greek ανθός (anthós).^[14]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for spring flowers and for the “flower of youth”.^[6][7]
• 7th–6th century BC – Solon speaks of the flowers of youth.^[6][4]
• 6th century BC – Theognis uses it for the sheen of gold.^[6][8][4]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it for the peak of love.^[6][4]
• 5th century BC – Hippocratic writers use it for an eruption on the skin.^[6][4]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses the plural for flowers embroidered on clothes.^[6][4]
• 1st century AD – The Letter of James compares the rich to a wild flower that withers.^[10]
• Modern Greek – The learned Modern Greek άνθος (ánthos) is the flower of a plant, and the literary Modern Greek ανθός (anthós) stands beside it.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A flower or blossom; collectively, the blooms of a plant or tree.^[6][8]
2. In the plural, flowers woven into a garland; figuratively, of songs.^[8]
3. The fragrance of flowers; the bouquet of a wine.^[8]
4. The bloom of youth, the prime of life.^[6][8]
5. The height or peak of something, bad as well as good.^[6]
6. Brightness, lustre: the sheen of gold, the hue of purple or of skin; in the plural, colours.^[6][8]
7. The foam of a wave; froth or scum on wine.^[8][6]
8. (medicine) An eruption on the skin.^[6]
9. In the plural, flowers embroidered on clothing.^[6]

Word family

• ἀνθέω (anthéō)
• ἄνθη (ánthē)
• ἀνθίζω (anthízō)
• ἀνθήλη (anthḗlē)
• ἀνθίας (anthíās)
• ἄνθινος (ánthinos)
• ἀνθολογία (anthologíā)
• ἀνθηρός (anthērós)
• ἄνθεμον (ánthemon)
• Ἀνθεστήρια (Anthestḗria)

Related words

• English anther
• English anthology

Usage notes

LSJ records a homograph, a masculine noun naming a kind of bird, perhaps the yellow wagtail, in Aristotle and Aelian.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. ^ Heggarty, Paul, et al. (2023), Indo-European Cognate Relationships (IE-CoR), Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, https://iecor.clld.org
4. ^ a b c d e f g Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
5. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 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. ^ 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
12. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
14. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki