ἧπαρ
Pronunciation
- 5th-century BC Attic: /hɛ̂ː.par/[1]
- 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈi.par/[1]
- 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈi.par/[1]
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
- The liver of a person or animal.[8][6]
- The liver of an animal as food, or as inspected in divination.[8][6]
- (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
- ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
- ^ Heggarty, Paul, et al. (2023), Indo-European Cognate Relationships (IE-CoR), Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, https://iecor.clld.org
- ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
- ^ 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
- ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
- ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
- ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge