ἴον

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /í.on/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈi.on/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈi.on/^[1]

Forms

ῐ̓́ον (íon) n (genitive ῐ̓́ου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It goes back to Proto-Hellenic *wion, with an initial /w/ that the epic metre and the Hesychius gloss γία (gía, “flowers”) (standing for ϝία (wía)) confirm.^[2][3][1] It is related to Latin viola (“violet”), and Beekes, Chantraine and Frisk take both as parallel loans from a Mediterranean language.^[2][3][4][5]

The Etymologicum Magnum derived the flower's name from ἀνίημι (aníēmi, “to send up”), because it shoots up quickly.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first instance is in the Odyssey, where soft meadows bloom “with violet and celery” (λειμῶνες μαλακοὶ ἴου ἠδὲ σελίνου), although ancient editors read other plant names there.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

Sappho mentions wreaths of violets, and Pindar, Herodotus, Plato and Demosthenes know the flower.^[7][9] Theocritus says that the violet is dark, and Theophrastus distinguishes the dark violet from the “white ἴον”, the gilliflower, also called λευκόϊον (leukóïon).^[7] The word was also used of the lily, the Etymologicum Magnum glosses it as any flower, and Pliny names a dark precious stone after it.^[7][6]

From the compound ἰοειδής (ioeidḗs) “violet-coloured” the French chemist Gay-Lussac coined French iode in 1812, the source of the English word iodine.^[5] In Modern Greek ίον (íon) is a learned name of the violet, which is usually μενεξές (menexés) or βιολέτα (violéta).^[10]

Timeline

• Homer – The Odyssey has meadows of violets.^[7][8]
• 7th–6th century BC – Sappho mentions wreaths of violets.^[7][11]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus mentions the flower.^[9][11]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus distinguishes the dark violet from the white gilliflower.^[7][11]
• 1812 – Gay-Lussac coins French iode from ἰοειδής “violet-coloured”.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The violet, Viola odorata.^[7][9]
2. With λευκόν “white”, or alone: the gilliflower, Matthiola incana.^[7]
3. The lily.^[7]
4. Any flower.^[7][6]
5. A dark precious stone, in Pliny.^[7]

Word family

• ἰάζω (iázō)
• ἰάνθινος (iánthinos)
• ἰοειδής (ioeidḗs)

Related words

• Latin viola
• English violet
• English iodine

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 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. ^ Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
9. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
10. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
11. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge