Etymologically
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ἐσχάρα

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /es.kʰá.raː/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /esˈxa.ra/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /esˈxa.ra/[1]

Forms

ἐσχᾰ́ρᾱ (eskhárā) f (genitive ἐσχᾰ́ρᾱς); first declension[1] The Linear B tablets have Mycenaean Greek e-ka-ra.[2] Ionic ἐσχάρη; epic genitive and dative ἐσχαρόφιν.[3][4]

Etymology

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek, because it has no cognates and no Indo-European source form can be set up; he notes the suffix ⟨-αρ-⟩ and the formation in ⟨-ρᾱ⟩ like χώρα (khṓrā) and τέφρα (téphrā).[2][5] Furnée held that the gloss form σχάρα (skhára) may have lost its first vowel secondarily.[2] Others have compared Gothic 𐌰𐌶𐌲𐍉 (azgō, “ash”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eHs- (“to dry, burn, glow”), the root of ἄζω (ázō).[1] Babiniotis also calls the origin unknown.[6] Pape notes that the derivation was already doubtful to the ancients.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is already on the Mycenaean tablets.[2] In the Iliad the “hearths of fire” are the watch-fires of the Trojan camp; in the Odyssey it is the household hearth, where the suppliant sits in the ashes.[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The hearth of the house became the hearth of sacrifice: a low altar hollowed in the ground, distinguished from the built altar βωμός (bōmós) and used especially in the worship of heroes, though tragedy also uses it for any altar of burnt offerings.[3][4] In comedy it is a pan of coals or brazier, and Aristophanes uses it as a slang word for the female genitals.[3][4] Theophrastus applies it to the lower piece of a fire-drill, writers on war engines to a base or platform.[3][2] The Septuagint uses it for the grating of the altar in Exodus.[8][3]

Hippocratic and Aristotelian medicine used it for the scab that forms on a burn, the source of Latin eschara.[2][3][1] Medieval vernacular Greek kept it as σκάρα, a cooking grill.[9] Modern Greek εσχάρα (eschára) is a learned word: a builder's slipway, an altar dug in the ground in archaeology, and the crust of a wound in medicine.[10]

Timeline

  • Mycenaean period – The tablets record Mycenaean Greek e-ka-ra.[2]
  • Homer – The Iliad uses it of watch-fires, the Odyssey of the hearth.[3][11]
  • 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it of altars of burnt offering.[3][12]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it of a brazier.[3][4][12]
  • 5th century BC – Hippocratic writers use it of the scab on a burn.[2][12]
  • 3rd–2nd century BC – The Septuagint uses it for the grating of the altar.[8]
  • Modern Greek – The learned Modern Greek εσχάρα (eschára) is used in shipbuilding, archaeology and medicine.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A hearth, fireplace; in the plural, watch-fires.[3][4]
  2. A pan of coals, brazier.[3][4]
  3. A sacrificial hearth; an altar of burnt offerings.[3][4]
  4. The lower piece of a fire-drill.[3]
  5. A platform, stand or base.[3][2]
  6. (Koine) A grating.[3][8]
  7. (medicine) A scab on a burn or wound, an eschar.[3][2]
  8. (comedy, slang) The female genitals.[4]

Word family

  • ἐσχάριον (eskhárion)
  • ἐσχαρίς (eskharís)
  • ἐσχαρεών (eskhareṓn)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  5. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  7. ^ Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
  8. ^ a b c Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
  9. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  11. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  12. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge