ἐσθής

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /es.tʰɛ̌ːs/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /esˈθis/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /esˈθis/^[1]

Forms

ἐσθής (esthḗs) f (genitive ἐσθῆτος); third declension^[1] Doric ἐσθάς (Pindar); a Hellenistic accusative ἐσθήν; a lengthened dative plural ἐσθήσεσι.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek ἕννυμι (hénnūmi, “to clothe”), whose root is Proto-Indo-European *wes- (“to clothe”).^[5][3][2] Chantraine calls it an obscure remaking of the rarer ἔσθος (ésthos, “clothing”).^[3] Schwyzer derived it from a quality noun built on the verbal adjective *ϝεστός (*westós), its θ taken from ἔσθος (ésthos).^[3]

The same root gives εἷμα (heîma, “garment”) and ἱμάτιον (hīmátion), and outside Greek Latin vestis (“clothing”) and Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐍃𐍄𐌹 (wasti, “garment”).^[5]

The Etymologicum of Philoxenus derived it from the future of that verb.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Odyssey it is clothing, clothes taken as a whole, such as clothes given as a gift or washing brought into the house.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

It remained the ordinary word for clothing in poetry and prose: Herodotus, the tragedians, Thucydides.^[2][7] It is mostly singular with a collective sense.^[3] Thucydides speaks of dressing simply, and in Demosthenes to change one's dress is to put on mourning.^[2] Metaphorically, Demades called the walls the city's clothing.^[2] In the New Testament it is still the ordinary word for clothing.^[4]

The learned Modern Greek εσθήτα (esthíta), formed on the accusative ἐσθῆτα, means a formal dress.^[8][9]

Timeline

• Homer – The Odyssey uses it for clothing.^[2][10]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it in the Theogony.^[10][7]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses the Doric form ἐσθάς.^[2][7][11]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides speaks of dressing simply.^[2][11]
• 1st century AD – The Gospel of Luke and Acts use it for clothing.^[4]
• Modern Greek – The learned word Modern Greek εσθήτα (esthíta) means a formal dress.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Clothing, raiment, clothes (often collective).^[2][7]
2. In the plural, clothes, garments.^[7][2]
3. (figurative) A covering: of walls, the clothing of a city.^[2]

Related words

• ἕννυμι (hénnūmi)
• ἔσθος (ésthos)
• εἷμα (heîma)
• ἱμάτιον (hīmátion)
• Latin vestis

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ 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
4. ^ 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
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. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
7. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
10. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
11. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge