ἔτος

Forms

ἔτος (étos) n (genitive ἔτους or ἔτεος); third declension^[1] Dialects that kept the w-sound write ϝέτος (wétos) (Heraclea, Olympia, Cyprus).^[2][3] Mycenaean Greek we-to (accusative), Mycenaean Greek we-te-i (dative).^[2][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *wétos,^[1] inherited from Proto-Indo-European *wétos (“year”), an old word for “year” kept in several branches of Indo-European.^[2][1] The dialect form with ϝ- shows the original initial /w/.^[2][3]

An exact match is Albanian vit (“year”), from Indo-European *wetes-.^[2] The same s-stem is found in Sanskrit वत्स (vatsá, “calf”), originally a one-year-old animal, and Hittite has the root noun Hittite u̯itt- (“year”).^[2][3] Latin vetus (“old”) has the same form as the Greek word.^[2] Benveniste explained its meaning as first used of old wine, and Beekes discusses the semantic problem.^[2][3] Lithuanian vẽtušas (“old”) has the same sense.^[2][3]

The root noun survives inside Greek in νέωτα (néōta, “next year”), πέρυσι (pérusi, “last year”) and σῆτες (sêtes, “this year”).^[3][2] A newer Greek word for the year is ἐνιαυτός (eniautós).^[2] Chantraine notes that ἔτος was in principle the current year, the newer word a full year that has come round.^[3]

Byzantine grammarians derived it from the verb “to be”, the Etymologicum Gudianum from “to be” and ἔτι (éti, “still, again”): time as what goes on being.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Mycenaean tablets of Pylos already have it, in the accusative we-to and the dative we-te-i; a doubled dative-locative we-te-i-we-te-i means “every year”.^[4][3] In Homer it is a span of time (“so many years we shall fight”, Iliad 2.328) and a point in a series of years (“the twentieth year”, Iliad 24.765).^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Greek it is the ordinary word for a year, with many fixed phrases: κατ’ ἔτος “every year” (Thucydides, Diodorus, the Gospel of Luke), Sophocles' “year after year”, and the dative for the year in which something happened (“in the third year”, Herodotus and Thucydides).^[7][8] Attic uses it to give a person's age.^[3] The Heraclea tablets have πὰρ ϝέτος for “yearly”.^[7]

The Septuagint uses it over seven hundred times, often in the genitive to give someone's age, as in Genesis 7:6.^[9] The New Testament does the same (Luke 2:42), and has “to have so many years” for an age or for the length of an illness (John 5:5, 8:57).^[10]

Medieval vernacular Greek kept it for the year, with phrases such as “to lead a young year”, that is, to be young.^[11] Modern Greek Έτος (étos) is a learned word beside the everyday χρόνος; some of its senses copy French année.^[12] Its family continues in Modern Greek ετήσιος (etísios, “annual”) and in compounds such as Modern Greek δεκαετία (dekaetía, “decade”).^[13]

Timeline

• Mycenaean (Linear B) – Pylos tablets have the accusative we-to and the dative we-te-i.^[4][3]
• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it of a span of years and of a year in a series.^[6][7]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides uses κατ’ ἔτος for “every year”.^[7][14]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles has “year after year” in the Antigone.^[7][14]
• New Testament – It gives a person's age and the length of an illness.^[10]
• Medieval vernacular Greek – It still means the year, in phrases about youth and annual allowances.^[11]
• Modern Greek – έτος is a learned word, with some senses modelled on French année.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A year, as a span of time.^[8][7]
2. A year as a date or in a series; with a numeral, a person's age.^[8][7][10]

Word family

• ἔτειος (éteios)
• ἐτήσιος (etḗsios)
• ἐτησίαι (etēsíai)

Related words

• νέωτα (néōta)
• πέρυσι (pérusi)
• σῆτες (sêtes)
• ἐνιαυτός (eniautós)
• Latin vetus

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 k 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 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 Heggarty, Paul, et al. (2023), Indo-European Cognate Relationships (IE-CoR), Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, https://iecor.clld.org
5. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
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 h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
10. ^ 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
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. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
14. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge