ἐρῆμος

Forms

ἐρῆμος (erêmos) m (feminine ἐρήμη, neuter ἐρῆμον); first/second declension^[1] Attic accents it ἔρημος, with a feminine in -ος, while Homer and the poets have ἐρῆμος, feminine ἐρήμη.^[2][3] Mycenaean Greek e-re-mo, used of land.^[1][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *erḗmos,^[1] from Proto-Indo-European *h₁réh₁mos, a derivative of the root *h₁reh₁- (“to rest; quiet”).^[1] Beekes points out that the Greek form requires a full grade *h₁reh₁-mo-, since a zero grade would have given two short vowels, and compares Lithuanian ìrti (“to disintegrate”), which would point to a meaning “loose, rare, separate”.^[5] The connection with Latin rārus (“thin, rare”) and rēte (“net”) is uncertain, because those Latin words have other explanations.^[5][4] Wiktionary takes the sense to have gone from “quiet (place)” to “uninhabited, lonely (place)”.^[1] Chantraine found nothing clear in its etymology.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is Mycenaean Greek e-re-mo, which describes land.^[1][4] In Homer it means uninhabited or deserted, of an island in the Odyssey and of an empty place in the Iliad, and also left alone, of sheep abandoned by their shepherd.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Greek it describes places that are uninhabited or empty, and people who are alone, friendless or without support; with a genitive it means “bereft of, without”.^[2][7] Herodotus uses the feminine as a noun for the desert, and the neuter plural for the desert parts of a country.^[2][7] In Attic law the feminine, with or without “suit” understood, named an undefended action, in which judgement went against the absent party by default.^[2][3]

The Septuagint uses the feminine noun for the desert or wilderness, and so does the New Testament, where it also describes lonely places and people deserted.^[8][9] Its derivative ἐρημίτης (erēmī́tēs), “one who lives in the desert”, appears in the Septuagint and became the Christian word for a hermit, spreading to all the languages that borrowed it from Christian Greek.^[3] English hermit comes from it through Late Latin and Old French.^[10]

Medieval Greek kept the adjective and the noun.^[11] Modern Greek έρημος (érimos) continues the Attic form, as an adjective and as a learned noun for the desert.^[12][4]

Timeline

• Mycenaean period – The Linear B tablets use Mycenaean Greek e-re-mo of land.^[1]
• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for deserted places and for animals left alone.^[6][2]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses the feminine as a noun for the desert.^[2][13]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides uses the feminine for a trial lost by default.^[2][13]
• Koine – The Septuagint uses it for the wilderness.^[8]
• Koine – The New Testament uses it for the desert and for lonely places.^[9]
• Medieval Greek – The adjective and the noun survive.^[11]
• Modern Greek – It survives as Modern Greek έρημος (érimos).^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of places, uninhabited, desolate, lonely; empty.^[2][7]
2. Of persons and animals, alone, isolated; without friends or resources.^[2][7]
3. With a genitive, bereft of, without; destitute of people or ships.^[2][7]
4. Of a funeral, unattended.^[7]
5. Unclaimed, vacant.^[2]

Noun

1. (feminine) A desert, wilderness.^[2][7][9]
2. (feminine, Attic law) An undefended suit, decided by default against the party who did not appear.^[2]

Word family

• ἐρημόω (erēmóō)
• ἐρημίτης (erēmī́tēs)
• ἐρημία (erēmíā)

Related words

• English hermit
• English eremite

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d 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
4. ^ a b c d Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
5. ^ a b 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
6. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
7. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b 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
13. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge