Etymologically
Log in

ἐλαύνω

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 24 October 2026 at 20:21. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /e.lǎu̯.nɔː/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /eˈla.βno/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /eˈla.vno/[1]

Forms

ἐλαύνω (elaúnō) [1] Mycenaean Greek e-ra-se, an aorist.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₁elh₂- (“to drive, move”).[3][1] The verbal root ends in a short -a-, as in the future ἐλῶ (elô) and the aorist ἤλασα (ḗlasa).[4][3] Beekes derives the present from a verbal noun with an ⟨-r/n-⟩ stem, and the DGE likewise calls it a denominative.[3][2]

There are no certain cognates.[3][1] A link with an Armenian verb meaning “to become” is improbable.[3] Wiktionary mentions Latin alacer (“lively”) and Proto-Germanic *alaną (“to drive”) as possible relatives.[1] The DGE considers a root that would also be found in ἦλθον (êlthon) and Latin ambulō.[2] Babiniotis links it with Old Armenian ելանեմ (elanem) “to go out, go up”, which Beekes sets apart as a verb of the same type.[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Mycenaean tablets have the aorist e-ra-se.[2] Homer uses the verb for driving horses, chariots and cattle, for rowing a ship, for striking with a weapon, for beating out metal and for drawing a wall or a ditch.[4][3]

Semantic evolution

Its uses in Homer are already wide.[4] Without an object it means to drive on, ride or row: “they whipped the horses on”, and in the Odyssey the rowers are οἱ ἐλαύνοντες.[4] It is used of carrying off cattle in a raid, and of driving a man out of his country, a use frequent in tragedy, where a god also harasses a city.[4][6] Homer uses it for beating out metal: the smith “drove” a shield; and for running a wall or a trench round a place, as Herodotus does of city walls.[4][3]

In Attic prose it also means to ride or march, and to push matters to an extreme: “they drove it so far”.[4] The New Testament uses it of the wind driving clouds and ships, of a spirit driving a possessed man, and of rowing.[7]

The verb still exists as Modern Greek ελαύνω (elávno), and the root lives on in ἐλατήρ (elatḗr) and ἔλασμα (élasma).[5][1]

Timeline

  • Mycenaean – The aorist e-ra-se is attested on the tablets.[2]
  • Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for driving horses and cattle, rowing, striking, forging metal and building a wall.[4][3]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it for driving a furrow.[4][2]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for riding and marching, and of walls carried down to a river.[4][2]
  • 5th century BC – The tragedians use it for driving someone out of the country.[4][6]
  • New Testament – The New Testament uses it of the wind, of a demon and of rowing.[7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To drive, set in motion horses, cattle or a chariot.[4][7]
  2. Intransitive: to drive on, ride, march; to row.[4][7]
  3. To drive away, carry off cattle or horses as plunder.[4]
  4. To drive out, expel a person from a country; to drive away a pollution.[4]
  5. To harass, persecute, plague.[4]
  6. To push on to a point, carry matters to an extreme.[4]
  7. To strike with a weapon held in the hand; to drive a weapon through.[4]
  8. To beat out metal, forge.[4][3]
  9. To draw out a line, of a wall or ditch; to drive a furrow.[4]

Word family

  • ἔλασις (élasis)
  • ἐλατήρ (elatḗr)
  • ἐξελαύνω (exelaúnō)
  • ἔλασμα (élasma)
  • ἐλαστός (elastós)
  • ἐλατός (elatós)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  6. ^ a b Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  7. ^ a b c d 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