ἄριστον

Forms

ᾱ̓́ρῑστον (ā́rīston) n (genitive ᾱ̓ρῑ́στου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *ayerīston,^[1] from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyeri-h₁d-to-, an old compound meaning “eaten in the morning”.^[2][1] Its first part is a locative “in the morning”, contracted from *αἴερι (*aíeri), which is also in ἦρι (êri, “early”); the second is the zero grade of the root Proto-Indo-European *h₁ed- (“to eat”) of ἔδω (édō) and ἐσθίω (esthíō, “to eat”), with a suffix -το-.^[2][3][4][5] The long /aː/ is certain.^[3] Beekes notes that the adverb “early” is now derived from *h₂eus-er-i instead, while the Etygram project holds that the word belongs with αὔριον (aúrion, “tomorrow”) and the words for “dawn”.^[2][6]

It has no etymological link with ἄριστος (áristos, “best”).^[7] Ancient writers linked it with the best of things all the same, and Plutarch derived it from the morning breeze, αὔρα (aúra), as he did the word for “tomorrow”.^[6] Later grammarians connected it with Ares, because the warriors ate before going to battle.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it twice for the first meal of the day: in the Odyssey (16.2) Eumaeus and Odysseus prepare it at dawn, and the Iliad (24.124) has it too.^[8][9][3]

Semantic evolution

Aeschylus names ἄριστα, δεῖπνα and δόρπα as the three meals of the day.^[8][3] In classical Ionic and Attic the morning meal came to be called ἀκράτισμα (akrátisma), after the bread dipped in unmixed wine that was eaten then, and ἄριστον moved to the meal taken around midday, a lunch.^[8][3][10] Herodotus and Thucydides use it in this sense, with phrases for “taking lunch”, and Thucydides also has the compound ἀριστοποιέομαι (aristopoiéomai).^[8][3] From it come the verbs ἀριστάω (aristáō, “to have lunch”) and ἀριστίζω (aristízō, “to give lunch”).^[2]

In the Septuagint it is a midday meal, and the “hour of ἄριστον” is noon; in the New Testament (Luke 14:12) it is set beside δεῖπνον (deîpnon, “dinner”).^[11][12] Medieval Greek used it for the midday meal and for a meal in general, and the word lives on in some dialects.^[13] As a learned word, Modern Greek άριστον (áriston) is used for the midday meal.^[7]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for the morning meal.^[8][9]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus lists it as the first of three daily meals.^[8][3]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus and Thucydides use it for the midday meal.^[8][3]
• 3rd–1st century BC – The Septuagint uses it for the midday meal and for noon.^[11]
• 1st century AD – Luke's gospel distinguishes it from the evening meal.^[12]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch derives it from the morning breeze.^[6]
• 10th century AD – The Suda derives it from the prowess of warriors.^[6]
• Medieval Greek – Vernacular texts use it for the midday meal.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Homeric) The first meal of the day, breakfast.^[8][9]
2. (classical and later) The midday meal, lunch.^[8][12]

Word family

• ἀριστάω (aristáō)
• ἀριστίζω (aristízō)
• ἀριστοποιέω (aristopoiéō)
• ἀριστόδειπνον (aristódeipnon)

Related words

• ἦρι (êri)
• ἐσθίω (esthíō)
• ἔδω (édō)

Usage notes

By classical times the Greeks counted the ἀκράτισμα (akrátisma), the ἄριστον and the δεῖπνον (deîpnon) as the day's meals, and Athenaeus discusses their names.^[2][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 g h i 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. ^ Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b c d e Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
7. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
10. ^ Smith, William; Wayte, William; Marindin, G. E., eds. (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 3rd ed., London: John Murray
11. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr