ἱστορέω

Forms

ῐ̔στορέω (historéō) ^[1]

Etymology

It is a denominative verb from Ancient Greek ἵστωρ (hístōr, “one who knows; witness”), with the suffix -έω (-éō).^[1][2] The noun is an agent noun *u̯id-tōr, from the root of οἶδα (oîda, “to know”), Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see, know”).^[2] Beekes notes that the verb and the noun ἱστορία (historíā) arose in Ionic and spread through the Greek world with the science and philosophy of Ionia.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is first found in Aeschylus, who uses it of knowing or having news about someone: in the Persians someone is said to know the future badly.^[3][4] It is not Homeric; the noun ἵστωρ (hístōr) appears in Homer and the Homeric Hymns.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In Herodotus it is the verb of inquiry: to ask, to question people, and to learn by asking, as when he asks people what power the Nile has; the perfect passive participle names the results of his inquiries.^[5][3] Tragedy uses it of asking about a person and of questioning an oracle.^[3][5] Later it came to mean to examine or visit a place in order to see it, and in Paul's letter to the Galatians it is used of visiting Cephas.^[3][6]

From the 4th century BC it also meant to give an account of what one has learnt, to record: Theophrastus records the lives of land animals, and Polybius and Plutarch use it of historians reporting events.^[3][5] It passed into Coptic, first in a manuscript of about AD 925.^[7]

Medieval vernacular Greek used it for “narrate”, “recall” and “paint”.^[8] Modern Greek ιστορώ (istoró) is learned in the sense “narrate”, while the sense “decorate a church with paintings” is medieval, because icons “told” the lives of the holy figures.^[9]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it of knowing or having news of someone.^[3][4][10]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of inquiring and questioning.^[5][3][10]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus uses it of recording what one has learnt.^[3][10]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it of learning from history and of recording events.^[5][10]
• 1st century AD – Paul uses it of visiting Cephas, and Plutarch of visiting a place to see it.^[6][3]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular texts use ιστορώ (istoró) for narrating and painting.^[8]
• Modern Greek – ιστορώ (istoró) means to narrate, and to decorate with religious paintings.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To inquire, ask; to inquire about something or someone.^[5][3]
2. To inquire of, question (a person, an oracle); (passive) to be questioned.^[5][3]
3. To examine, observe; to visit (a place or person) to get to know them.^[3][5][6]
4. To know, be informed about.^[5][3]
5. To learn (from history); to record, report, narrate.^[5][3]

Word family

• ἱστορία (historíā)
• ἱστόρημα (histórēma)
• ἱστορικός (historikós)

Related words

• ἵστωρ (hístōr)
• οἶδα (oîda)
• English history

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ a b c 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
7. ^ Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
8. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge