ἐρυθρός
Pronunciation
- 5th-century BC Attic: /e.ry.tʰrós/[1]
- 4th-century AD Koine: /e.ryˈθros/[1]
- 10th-century Byzantine: /e.ryˈθros/[1]
Forms
ἐρῠθρός (eruthrós) m (feminine ἐρῠθρᾱ́, neuter ἐρῠθρόν); first/second declension[1] Mycenaean Greek e-ru-to-ro, feminine Mycenaean Greek e-ru-ta-ra.[2][3]
Etymology
It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *erutʰrós, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rudʰrós (“red”), from the root *h₁rewdʰ-.[1][4][2] Greek is the only branch that keeps the initial laryngeal, as ἐ-.[1] The suffix -ro- is shared by Latin ruber (“red”), Sanskrit रुधिर (rudhirá, “red, bloody; blood”), Russian рёдрый (rjódryj, “red”), Tocharian A rtär (“red”) and Tocharian B ratre (“red”).[2][4][1] Other branches have an o-grade adjective without it, the source of Latin rūfus (“red”) and English red.[2][4] Beekes thinks that, together with the old verb ἐρυθαίνομαι (eruthaínomai), it points to an older r/n-stem.[2]
Within Greek it belongs with ἐρεύθω (ereúthō, “to make red”) and ἔρευθος (éreuthos, “redness”).[2][5]
Earliest recorded meaning
The Mycenaean tablets of Mycenae have the feminine e-ru-ta-ra.[3] In Homer it is said of nectar and wine, and of bronze (Iliad 9.365, 19.38, Odyssey 5.93).[6][7]
Semantic evolution
Theognis uses it of gold, Aeschylus of an offering of blood, Herodotus and Plato of soil and stone, Herodotus and Theocritus of feathers and petals.[8][7] Hippocratic writers use the neuter plural for a red rash, and later the neuter names the yolk of an egg.[7] With θάλασσα it named the “Red Sea”, which in Pindar, Herodotus and Xenophon is the Indian Ocean with its gulfs, the Arabian and the Persian.[8] From it was named the Ionian city Ἐρυθραί (Eruthraí), after its red rocks.[2]
Modern Greek Ερυθρός (erythrós) is a learned word, used mainly in names: red wine, red blood cells, the Red Sea, the Red Cross.[9] The learned element English erythro- comes from it.[1]
Timeline
- Mycenaean (Linear B) – The feminine e-ru-ta-ra appears on tablets from Mycenae.[3]
- Homer – It describes nectar, wine and bronze.[6][7]
- 6th century BC – Theognis uses it of gold.[7][10]
- 5th century BC – Herodotus calls the Indian Ocean the Red Sea.[8][10]
- Modern Greek – ερυθρός is a learned word in names such as the Red Cross.[9]
Meanings
Adjective
- Red (of wine, nectar, bronze, gold, blood, soil, feathers, a made-up face).[8][7]
- With or without θάλασσα: the “Red Sea”, the Indian Ocean with the Arabian and Persian gulfs.[8]
- (neuter plural, medicine) A red rash.[7]
Word family
- ἐρυθρίας (eruthríās)
- ἐξέρυθρος (exéruthros)
- Ἐρυθραί (Eruthraí)
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g 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
- ^ a b c Heggarty, Paul, et al. (2023), Indo-European Cognate Relationships (IE-CoR), Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, https://iecor.clld.org
- ^ a b c Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
- ^ 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
- ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
- ^ a b c d e f g Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
- ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge