ἧπαρ

Forms

ἧπᾰρ (hêpar) n (genitive ἥπᾰτος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *yêkʷər, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *Hyékʷr̥ (“liver”),^[1][2] the Indo-European name of the liver, an r/n-stem with the genitive *Hyekʷ-n-és.^[2][3] The Greek genitive in ⟨-ατος⟩ continues the n-stem.^[2]

Cognate with Sanskrit यकृत् (yákṛt), genitive यक्नः (yaknás), and Latin iecur.^[2][4] In other branches the two stems split into separate words, as in Avestan yākarə and Lithuanian (j)ẽknos “roe”.^[2] Germanic and Armenian names of the liver with initial /l/ may have taken it from the word for fat.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from the Iliad on, meaning the liver, usually as the place where a warrior is mortally wounded.^[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

In tragedy, the liver is also the seat of the passions, anger, fear and love, and the place where grief strikes.^[8][6] Archilochus and Plato connect these feelings with the gall the liver contains.^[6] Hesiod and Aeschylus tell of Prometheus' liver, devoured again and again as his punishment, and the comic poets praise the liver of the boar or the goose as a delicacy.^[6][8] Later it was the organ of the sacrificial victim inspected by diviners, in Plutarch.^[6]

Latin hepatarius was made from it.^[9] Modern Greek ήπαρ (ípar) is the learned anatomical word, beside the everyday συκώτι; the plural survives in the phrase “my livers were cut”, for a fright that leaves one paralysed.^[10] English hepar, a metallic sulphide named for its colour, comes from it through Medieval Latin.^[11]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for the liver, struck by a spear or sword.^[5][7]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod tells of Prometheus' liver eaten by the eagle.^[6][7][12]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles and Euripides use it for the place where a blade strikes home, and as the seat of emotion.^[8][6][12]
• 2nd century AD – Galen uses it in medical writing.^[8][12]
• 1796 – English borrows hepar for a sulphide, from the Medieval Latin hepar sulphuris of the 1690s.^[11]
• Modern Greek – ήπαρ is the learned word for the liver.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The liver of a person or animal.^[8][6]
2. The liver of an animal as food, or as inspected in divination.^[8][6]
3. (poetic) The liver as the seat of the passions, such as anger, fear, grief and love.^[8][6]

Related words

• Latin iecur
• English hepar

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
4. ^ Heggarty, Paul, et al. (2023), Indo-European Cognate Relationships (IE-CoR), Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, https://iecor.clld.org
5. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ a b c d e f g Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge