ἐρείκω

Forms

ἐρείκω (ereíkō); imperfect ἤρεικον, poetic ἔρεικον; first aorist ἤρειξα; second aorist ἤρικον (intransitive); perfect passive ἐρήριγμαι.^[1][2][3]

Etymology

In LIV's view it is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *(h₁)rei̯ḱ- (“to tear, break”), with the full-grade present ἐρείκω beside the old weak-grade root aorist ἤρικον (ḗrikon).^[4][1] The initial ⟨ε⟩ may be a prothetic vowel.^[5]

Beekes and Frisk find no exact match in form and meaning in the other languages.^[1][6] The nearest are Sanskrit verbs meaning "to scratch" and "to tear away" and Lithuanian riẽkti (“to cut bread, to plough for the first time”); nouns such as Old High German rīga (“row, line”), Latin rixa (“quarrel”) and perhaps rīma (“crack”) may belong here too.^[1][6][5] Chantraine explains the varying final consonant by the expressive meaning.^[5]

Ancient writers derived ἐρείκη (ereíkē, “heather”) from it, as a shrub easily split.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Iliad the active is not found: the passive is used of a corslet rent around a spear, and the intransitive aorist ἤρικε of a helmet that bursts around the spear point.^[8][3][2]

Semantic evolution

Early poetry uses it for violent tearing and breaking: Tyrtaeus has the passive of a corslet, Hesiod's Shield ploughmen who break open the earth, Aeschylus mourners who tear their robes and winds that dash ships against each other, Pindar shattered bones.^[2][3][9] Sophocles uses it of pains that rack a man.^[3]

Chantraine notes that the verb, general in meaning in Homer, later became a technical word, above all through its derivatives, for crushing grain.^[5] In the Hippocratic writers, Aristophanes and Aristotle it means to bruise or pound barley, groats and beans,^[3] and its derivatives name such foods: ἐρεικίδες (ereikídes) "groats" and ἐρείκιον, a crumbly pastry, in Galen, and ἐρέγματα, crushed pulse, in Theophrastus.^[1][6]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses the passive of a corslet torn around a spear and the aorist of a helmet that bursts.^[8][3]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Shield has ploughmen breaking open the earth.^[3][2][10]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it of torn robes and of winds that shatter ships.^[3][2][10]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar has it of shattered bones.^[2][9][10]
• 5th century BC – The Hippocratic writers use it for crushing barley and groats.^[3][10]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle speaks of crushed beans.^[3][10]
• 2nd century AD – Galen names crushed barley and a crumbly pastry with its derivatives.^[1][6][10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To rend, tear, break open: the earth with a plough, clothes in mourning; in the passive, of a corslet torn around a spear.^[3][2]
2. (intransitive, second aorist) To be rent, burst: of a helmet.^[3][8][2]
3. To shatter: of winds dashing ships together; in the passive, of shattered bones.^[3][2]
4. Of pain, to rack.^[3]
5. To bruise or pound grain and pulse.^[3][5]

Word family

• ἐρείκιον (ereíkion)
• ἐρεγμός (eregmós)
• ἐρέγμινος (erégminos)

Related words

• ἐρείπω (ereípō)

References

1. ^ 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
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
5. ^ a b c d e 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
6. ^ a b c d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
7. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
9. ^ a b Slater, William J. (1969), Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: De Gruyter
10. ^ a b c d e f Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge