Etymologically
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ἐξετάζω

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /ek.se.táz.dɔː/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ek.seˈta.zo/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ek.seˈta.zo/[1]

Forms

ἐξετάζω (exetázō) [1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek ἐξ- (ex-) + ἐτάζω (etázō, “to examine, test”), the prefix marking that the inquiry is carried to its end.[1][2] ἐτάζω (etázō) is itself rare, and the compound is the usual word.[2][3]

The simple verb is a denominative of ἐτός (etós), known only from Hesychius' gloss “true, good”, so that it properly meant “to verify, test the truth of”.[3][4][5] The further origin is not settled.[4][3] This adjective was formerly explained as a verbal adjective of εἰμί (eimí, “to be”), comparable with Old Norse sannr and Sanskrit सत्य (satyá-, “true”), but Beekes objects that the laryngeal pre-forms would not give the Greek words.[3][4] De Lamberterie, following Pinault, starts from a stem Proto-Indo-European *set-u-.[3] Beekes compares ἐτεός (eteós, “true”) and ὅσιος (hósios).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Theognis, in the 6th century BC, is the first to use it: friends must be examined to see what mind they have.[6][5][7]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Attic the verb meant to examine closely, scrutinize or review a thing or a person, and to question someone.[6][8] In military use it meant to inspect or review troops, as in Thucydides and Euripides.[6][8] By testing one could also show someone up or prove him, and the passive meant to be found or proved to be something, to present oneself for inspection, or to be counted among a group.[8] In Plutarch the passive is used of being registered in the Roman census, and Dio Cassius uses the verb for revising the roll of the Senate.[8][6]

The Septuagint uses it of judges examining a case and of questioning a person, and in the New Testament the Gospel of Matthew uses it of a careful search for someone.[9][7] Coptic borrowed it, with a first dated manuscript of AD 625.[10]

Medieval vernacular Greek kept the word, and Modern Greek εξετάζω (eksetázo) means to examine, while its senses of examining a patient and examining a student are semantic loans from French examiner.[11][12]

Timeline

  • 6th century BC – Theognis uses it of examining friends' minds.[6][5]
  • 5th century BC – Thucydides uses it of reviewing troops and Sophocles of questioning a person.[6][8]
  • 4th century BC – The orators use the passive of being shown or proved to be something.[8][6]
  • 1st century AD – The Gospel of Matthew uses it of a careful search for someone.[7]
  • 2nd–3rd century AD – Dio Cassius uses it for revising the roll of the Roman Senate.[6]
  • AD 625 – The Coptic borrowing is first recorded in a dated manuscript.[10]
  • Modern Greek – εξετάζω (exetázo) takes on the senses of examining patients and students from French.[12]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To examine closely, scrutinize, review.[6][8]
  2. (military) To inspect or review troops.[6][8]
  3. To question a person closely.[6][8]
  4. To reveal by testing, show up; in the passive, to be found or proved to be something.[8]
  5. To estimate or compare one thing with another.[6]
  6. (passive) To present oneself for inspection; to be counted among a group; at Rome, to be registered in the census.[8]

Word family

  • ἐξέτασις (exétasis)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b 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
  3. ^ a b c d e f 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  5. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
  11. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  12. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki