ἰσθμός

Forms

ῐ̓σθμός (isthmós) m (genitive ῐ̓σθμοῦ); second declension^[1] Delphic Ἰθμός (Ithmós) in inscriptions of the 3rd century BC.^[2][3]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[4][3] The obvious explanation makes it from Ancient Greek εἶμι (eîmi, “to go”) with the suffix -θμός (-thmós), comparing the variant Ἰθμός (Ithmós) in Delphic inscriptions and the related ἴθμα (íthma, “step”) and εἰσίθμη (eisíthmē, “entrance”).^[4][3][5][2] For the meaning Frisk and Chantraine compare Old Norse eið (“isthmus”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁oyd- (or *h₁oyt-).^[5][3][4] The ⟨σ⟩ is unexplained, however, and a starting form with a doubled dental cannot be justified, so Chantraine suspected a local word borrowed and adapted to the Greek pattern, and Beekes marks it as possibly Pre-Greek.^[4][3][5] Chadwick's reading of the Mycenaean personal name Mycenaean Greek wi-ti-mi-jo as a derivative of this word would rule out the link with the verb “to go”.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Babiniotis dates the word to the 6th century BC, in Simonides, and Simonides and Pindar use the old locative Ἰσθμοῖ “at the Isthmus” of the Isthmus of Corinth.^[6][3] The derivative ἴσθμιον (ísthmion, “necklace”) in the Odyssey shows that the sense “neck” is old.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The basic sense is a narrow passage: it is used of the human neck by Empedocles and by Plato, who calls it the boundary between head and chest, and Sophocles speaks of the “short isthmus of life”.^[2][3][7] In geography it is the neck of land between two seas: Aeschylus has the Cimmerian isthmus, Herodotus and Thucydides those of the Chersonese and of Pallene.^[2][8] Above all it was the name of the Isthmus of Corinth, home of the Isthmian Games (Ἴσθμια (Ísthmia)).^[2][3][5] Inscriptions from Delos use it, unusually, for a channel or strait, and physicians for the throat.^[3][2]

Latin borrowed the word as Latin isthmus, the source of English isthmus (1550s).^[9] Modern Greek uses it as the learned ισθμός (isthmós).^[10][6]

Timeline

• 6th century BC – Simonides has the word, in the locative “at the Isthmus”.^[6][3]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus speaks of the Cimmerian isthmus, and Pindar names the Isthmus of Corinth.^[2][11][12]
• 5th century BC – Empedocles uses it of the neck, and Herodotus and Thucydides of necks of land.^[2][3][12]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato calls the neck the isthmus between head and chest.^[2][12]
• 3rd century BC – Inscriptions from Delos use it for a narrow channel of the sea.^[2][3]
• 2nd century AD – Galen and Aretaeus use it for the throat.^[2][12]
• 1550s – English borrows isthmus from Latin.^[9]
• Modern Greek – The learned ισθμός (isthmós) continues the geographical sense.^[10][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A neck, a narrow passage, especially of the body; figuratively, the short passage of life.^[2][8]
2. (medicine) The pharynx or throat.^[2]
3. A neck of land between two seas, an isthmus.^[2][8]
4. The Isthmus of Corinth.^[2][3]
5. A narrow ridge, said of the Caucasus between the Caspian and the Black Sea.^[2]
6. A narrow channel of the sea, a strait.^[2][3]

Word family

• ἴσθμιον (ísthmion)
• ἰσθμώδης (isthmṓdēs)
• ἐπίσθμιος (epísthmios)

Related words

• Latin isthmus
• English isthmus

Usage notes

The lexicographers contrast it with πορθμός (porthmós): the isthmus is a strip of land between two seas, the πορθμός a strip of sea between two lands (some lexica give the two the other way round).^[13][14][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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 d 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
5. ^ a b c d e Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ a b c d e Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
7. ^ Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
8. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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 d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
13. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Photius, Lexicon, ed. Christos Theodoridis, vol. 1 (Α–Δ) (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1982); ed. Richard Porson (Cambridge, 1822)
15. ^ Lexica Segueriana, in Immanuel Bekker, ed. (1814), Anecdota Graeca I, Berlin: Nauck