ὑσμίνη

Forms

ὑσμῑ́νη (husmī́nē) f (genitive ὑσμῑ́νης); first declension^[1]

Etymology

Frisk calls it an old relic word, isolated in Greek.^[2] If it is inherited, it rests on a lost noun *ὑσμός (*husmós), formally the same as Sanskrit युध्म (yudhmá, “warrior”), from Proto-Indo-European *Hyewdʰ- (“to move, fight”), with an analogical suffix.^[3][2][4][1] Its archaic suffix is that of ῥηγμίν (rhēgmī́n, “breakers”), and the noun later passed into the ā-stems.^[3][2][4] Beekes adds that, given the suffix, it could equally well be a Pre-Greek loanword.^[3]

The Sanskrit word belongs with the Sanskrit noun for battle.^[2][4] Related words elsewhere mean “to move”: Lithuanian judė́ti (“to move, stir”), judùs (“quarrelsome”) and Latin iubeō (“to set in motion, order”).^[2][4] For Chantraine this shows that a battle was first a mêlée, a turmoil.^[4] The Elean personal name Ὕσμων (Húsmōn) may belong here.^[4][3] The Etymologicum Magnum derived it from ὑπομένω (hupoménō, “to stand firm”), because war needs endurance.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is an epic word, found from the Iliad on, meaning a fight or battle.^[6][7][3] Homer also has an old dative ὑσμῖνι.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

In Homer it means a fight, and also, concretely, the fighting ranks, a battle array that is drawn up or broken.^[7] After Homer it stayed in epic and lyric poetry: Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns have it, and Bacchylides.^[3][6][8] Hesiod's Theogony has the plural as a name, the Battles.^[8] The ὑσμιναταί were a tribe at Epidaurus.^[2]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for a fight and for a battle line.^[7][6]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Theogony uses the plural as the name of the Battles.^[8][9]
• 5th century BC – Bacchylides still uses it in lyric.^[6][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fight, battle, combat.^[6][7]
2. A fighting force drawn up for battle, a battle array.^[7]

Related words

• Ὕσμων (Húsmōn)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f 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
5. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
8. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
9. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge