Etymologically
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ἐρέπτομαι

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /e.rép.to.mai̯/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /eˈrep.to.mɛ/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /eˈrep.to.me/[1]

Forms

ἐρέπτομαι (eréptomai) [1]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Proto-Indo-European *(h₁)rep- (“to tear off, pluck”), with a present suffix; its proper sense is “to tear away, snatch”.[2][3] It resembles Lithuanian ap-rė́pti (“to take, catch”) and Albanian rjep (“to tear off, rob”), and Latin rapiō (“to snatch”), with another vowel.[2][1][3] It has also been compared with ἁρπάζω (harpázō).[2] The compound ἀνηρέψαντο (anērépsanto) “they snatched up” is read so after Fick's correction of the manuscripts.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is a Homeric word, found only in the participle: of horses munching lotus and white barley (Iliad 2.776, 5.196), of fish gnawing the fat of a corpse (21.204), of birds pecking up wheat (Odyssey 19.553), and of the Lotus-eaters (9.97).[4][5]

Semantic evolution

It remained an epic verb.[5][6] Aristophanes uses it in mock-epic style of a man who feeds on what belongs to others (Knights 1295).[5][6] The Palatine Anthology still uses it of eating lotus and grapes.[5] Nonnus has an active ἐρέπτω “to eat”, and Hesychius records an active in the causative sense “to feed”.[5][7]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use the participle of animals and men feeding.[4][5]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it in mock-epic style.[5][6][8]
  • 4th–5th century AD – Nonnus uses an active form, “to eat”.[5][8]
  • 5th century AD (probably) – Hesychius records the active in the sense “to feed”.[5][8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (of animals) To feed on, munch plants or grain.[6][4] (Of birds) To peck up.[6][4][5]
  2. (of fish) To gnaw away.[4][6]
  3. (of people) To pluck and eat (the lotus).[6][5]
  4. (comic) To devour other people's food.[6][5]
  5. (active, late) To eat; to feed, nourish.[5]

Word family

  • ἀνερέπτομαι (aneréptomai)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ a b c Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
  4. ^ a b c d e Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  7. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
  8. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge