ἰός
ἰός1 arrow
Pronunciation
Forms
ῑ̓ός (īós) m (genitive ῑ̓οῦ); second declension[1] Homer once has a neuter plural ἰά (iá).[2][3]
Etymology
The arrow is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *ihwós,[1] a thematized form of Proto-Indo-European *(H)isu- (“arrow”).[4][1][3] Cognate with Sanskrit इषु (íṣu) and Avestan išu, both meaning “arrow”.[4][1][3] Meier-Brügger takes the Homeric plural as the neuter plural of an older Greek *ihu, from which the singular was later thematized.[4]
Earliest recorded meaning
From the first book of the Iliad on it is an arrow: ἰὸν ἕηκε, “he let fly an arrow”.[2][5]
Semantic evolution
It is a word of epic and poetic language.[3] Aeschylus and Sophocles still use it.[2] Its compound ἰοδόκος (iodókos) is the quiver.[6]
Timeline
- Homer – The Iliad uses it for arrows.[2][5]
- 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it in the Persians.[2][7]
- 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it in the Trachiniae.[2][7]
Meanings
Noun
Word family
- ἰοδόκος (iodókos)
ἰός2 poison
Pronunciation
Forms
ῑ̓ός (īós) m (genitive ῑ̓οῦ); second declension[1]
Etymology
The poison is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *wihós,[1] inherited from Proto-Indo-European *wisós (“fluidity, slime, poison”), the old Indo-European word for poison.[4][1][3] Cognate with Sanskrit विष (viṣá), Latin vīrus, Tocharian A wäs, Tocharian B wase and Middle Irish fí.[4][1] The Tocharian and Sanskrit forms point to a short /i/, so Beekes takes the long vowel of Latin, Irish and Greek as secondary.[4]
Many languages replaced the old word with euphemisms, as Greek did with φάρμακον (phármakon) and Latin with venēnum.[4][8][3] Chantraine and Frisk identify it with the word for rust (homograph 3), and LSJ thinks that word perhaps identical.[8][3][2]
Earliest recorded meaning
Pindar has it first, of the “blameless venom of bees”, the honey on which snakes fed the infant Iamos.[2][4]
Semantic evolution
In tragedy it is the venom of snakes, in Aeschylus' Eumenides, Sophocles' Trachiniae and Euripides' Ion, and Aeschylus uses it figuratively of envy.[2] Later medical writers use it of the venom of a mad dog.[2] In the New Testament it is the venom of asps in the Letter to the Romans, quoting a Psalm, and it is used figuratively in the Letter of James.[9]
Modern Greek ιός (iós) is a learned revival meaning a virus, modelled on the international word that comes from Latin vīrus (“poison”).[10][11]
Timeline
- 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it of the “venom of bees”, honey.[2][7]
- 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it of snake venom and figuratively of envy.[2][7]
- 1st–2nd century AD – Rufus uses it of the venom of a mad dog.[2][7]
- Modern Greek – The learned Modern Greek ιός (iós) means a virus.[10][11]
Meanings
Noun
ἰός3 rust
Pronunciation
Forms
ῑ̓ός (īós) m (genitive ῑ̓οῦ); second declension[1]
Etymology
Rust is probably the same word as the poison (homograph 2), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *wisós, specialised for the corrosion of metals.[8][3][4] Frisk points to the varied meanings of the Indo-European word, Latin vīrus also meaning slime and juice, and suggests that the two senses split in the language of different trades.[3] He adds that the word for rust, unlike the poison, was used in prose from early on, which points to a stylistic difference.[3] Beekes accepts the identification as possible but marks the origin as unknown, and Wiktionary calls it uncertain.[4][1]
Earliest recorded meaning
It is first certain in Theognis, in the 6th century BC, of rust on metal, and a fragment of Sappho that may have it is doubtful.[2][4][7]
Semantic evolution
Plato, in the Republic and the Timaeus, and Theocritus use it of rust.[2] Hippocratic writers, Dioscorides and Galen name verdigris “rust of copper”, and Dioscorides names “rust of iron”.[2] An inscription from Chios of the 4th century BC requires a bronze statue to be kept clean of patina.[2][4] Derivatives are ἰώδης (iṓdēs) “rust-coloured”, ἰόομαι (ióomai) “to rust” in Aristotle and Theophrastus, and the late ἴωσις (íōsis), the refining of gold by oxidizing its impurities.[8] In the Letter of James it is the corrosion of hoarded gold and silver.[9]
Timeline
- 6th century BC – Theognis uses it of rust.[2][7]
- 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it of the rust of iron.[2][7]
- 4th century BC – An inscription from Chios uses it of the patina on a bronze statue.[2][4]
- 1st century AD – Dioscorides names the rust of copper and of iron.[2][7]
Meanings
Noun
Word family
- ἰώδης (iṓdēs)
Usage notes
LSJ has a fourth ἰός, with a short /i/, meaning “one, the same” and commonest in the feminine ἴα; it occurs in Homer and in the Gortyn law code.[2][4][1] Wiktionary derives it from an old pronoun, Proto-Indo-European *(h₁)éy.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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
- ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
- ^ Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
- ^ a b c d 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
- ^ a b c d e 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
- ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
- ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας