Etymologically
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ἰσχνός

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /is.kʰnós/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /isˈxnos/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /isˈxnos/[1]

Forms

ἰσχνός (iskhnós) m (feminine ἰσχνή, neuter ἰσχνόν); first/second declension[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.[2][3] The adjective belongs with ἰσχαλέος (iskhaléos, “dry, barren”) and ἰσχάς (iskhás, “dried fig”), and this pair has the same alternation of suffixes as σμερδνός (smerdnós) : σμερδαλέος (smerdaléos).[2][3][4] A verb ἰσχαίνω (iskhaínō) would be expected beside them, and it is often found as a manuscript variant, but it may be a cross with ἰσχάνω (iskhánō, “to hold back”).[2][4]

The most plausible comparison is with a u-stem meaning “dry”: Avestan hišku-, Middle Irish sesc and Welsh hysb, from Proto-Indo-European *si-sk-u-, built on a root Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to wither”) that is also seen in Latin siccus (“dry”).[2][3][1] The Greek aspirate /kʰ/ is not explained by this, and for ἰσχνός itself an ad hoc pre-form Proto-Indo-European *si-sk-sno- has been set up.[3][4][2] Frisk rejects a link with Latin vēscus (“emaciated”), which LSJ had suggested.[4][5]

Ancient grammarians derived it from ἴσχω (ískhō, “to hold back”) with an added /n/, as Philoxenus did in the 1st century BC.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the 5th century BC, in Aristophanes of dry, withered leaves and in the Hippocratic writings of lean people.[5][7][8]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Greek the word meant “dry, withered”, of plants and cheese, and, of people, “thin, lean, spare”, a sense common in the medical writers and in Plato.[5][7] Physicians also used it of a swelling that has gone down and of a weak pulse, and Lucian of a thin voice.[5]

Rhetoricians used it of a plain, unadorned style, the “spare” manner, opposed to the grand one, in Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Demetrius.[5][3] The compound ἰσχνόφωνος (iskhnóphōnos) meant “with a thin voice” but more often “having an impediment in speech”, a sense that ancient writers linked with ἴσχω (ískhō).[2][3]

Modern Greek has ισχνός (ischnós) as a learned word, “thin, lean” and, figuratively, “meagre, slight”.[9][10]

Timeline

  • 5th century BC – Aristophanes uses it of withered leaves, and the Hippocratic writings of lean people.[5][7][11]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it of thin, half-starved people.[5][7]
  • 1st century BC – Dionysius of Halicarnassus applies it to the plain style of oratory.[5][8]
  • 2nd century AD – Galen uses it of a weak pulse.[5][8]
  • Modern Greek – The word survives as a learned adjective meaning “thin, lean”.[9]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Dry, withered, of leaves, roots or cheese.[5][7]
  2. Of people and animals, thin, lean, spare.[5][7]
  3. (medicine) Of a swelling, reduced, gone down; of the pulse, weak.[5]
  4. Of a voice, thin, small.[5]
  5. Of cloth, light, thin.[5]
  6. (rhetoric) Of style, plain, spare, unadorned.[5][3]

Word family

  • ἰσχναίνω (iskhnaínō)
  • ἰσχνασία (iskhnasía)
  • ἰσχνόφωνος (iskhnóphōnos)
  • ἔνισχνος (éniskhnos)
  • ἰσχνοσκελής (iskhnoskelḗs)
  • ἰσχνότης (iskhnótēs)
  • ἰσχνουργής (iskhnourgḗs)
  • ἰσχαλέος (iskhaléos)
  • ἰσχάς (iskhás)
  • Latin siccus

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. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
  7. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  8. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  10. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  11. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux