ἔδαφος

Forms

ἔδᾰφος (édaphos) n (genitive ἐδάφους); third declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][3] It may be formed from Ancient Greek ἕδος (hédos, “seat”) + -φος (-phos), with loss of the first aspiration because of the second.^[4][3][1] The formation is odd, however: ἔδαφος stands alone among the nouns with this suffix, and Beekes only asks whether it belongs with ἕζομαι (hézomai).^[4][2]

The DGE also mentions an older form with a nasal, connected with Hittite utne (“land”) and οὖδας (oûdas, “ground”), a link that Chantraine thinks no better.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in the Odyssey (5.249), of the bottom of the boat that Odysseus builds.^[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

The basic sense is the base or bottom of something: of a ship in Homer, Herodotus and Demosthenes, of a river or the sea in Xenophon and Aristotle, and of the foundations of buildings in Thucydides.^[6][5] From this it came to mean the floor of a house and the ground in general, so that a city could be razed to the ground, and in Acts Paul falls to the ground.^[5][6][8] The orators use it of the soil of one's country, and Isaeus and Polybius use the plural for landed property.^[6][5] Galen used it for the text of an author as opposed to the commentary.^[2]

Medieval Greek kept the word.^[9] It survives as Modern Greek έδαφος (édafos), a learned word for ground, soil and territory, and the sense “terrain” follows French terrain.^[10][11]

Timeline

• Homer – The Odyssey uses it of the bottom of a boat.^[5][6]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of a floor, and Thucydides of foundations and of razing a city to the ground.^[5][6][3]
• 4th century BC – Aeschines speaks of fighting for the soil of the homeland.^[5][3]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses the plural for landed property.^[6][3]
• 2nd century AD – Galen uses it for the text of an author as opposed to its commentary.^[2][3]
• Modern Greek – The learned word means ground and territory.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The bottom, base or foundation of anything: of a ship, of a river or the sea; in the plural, the foundations of a building.^[5][6]
2. A floor, pavement; the ground, to which something falls or is razed.^[5][6]
3. The soil of one's country.^[5][6]
4. In the plural, real estate, land and houses.^[6]
5. (Galen) The text of an author, as opposed to the commentary.^[2]

Word family

• ἐδαφίζω (edaphízō)
• ἐδαφόω (edaphóō)

Related words

• ἕδος (hédos)
• ἕζομαι (hézomai)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
4. ^ a b c 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ 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
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. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας