ῥάπτω

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /r̥áp.tɔː/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈrap.to/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈrap.to/^[1]

Forms

ῥᾰ́πτω (rháptō) ^[1] Mycenaean Greek e-ra-pe-me-na (“stitched”).^[2] Perhaps also ra-pte, a “stitcher”.^[2]

Etymology

The origin is unclear.^[2][1] It used to be compared with Lithuanian ver̃pti (“to spin”) and other Baltic verbs, from a root Proto-Indo-European *werp-, which LIV still lists with a question mark; but the Mycenaean participle Mycenaean Greek e-ra-pe-me-na “stitched” shows that the verb had no initial ϝ-, so this etymology must be abandoned.^[2][1][3] Its connection with ῥέπω (rhépō) and ῥέμβομαι (rhémbomai) is uncertain.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Mycenaean tablets have e-ra-pe-me-na “stitched”.^[2] In the Iliad oxhides are stitched together, and the word is already used figuratively, “to stitch together evil”, that is, to plot.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

It meant to sew or stitch together, and to make by sewing: Herodotus uses it for a shoe and a water-pipe of hides, Aristophanes for a cushion and false beards, and Euripides for the infant Dionysus sewn into the thigh of Zeus.^[5][6] Its figurative use, to contrive murder or evil, runs from Homer to Herodotus and Euripides.^[5][4]

In the Septuagint Adam and Eve sew fig leaves together, and Ecclesiastes has “a time to sew”.^[7] Derivatives include ῥαφή (rhaphḗ, “seam”) and ῥαφίς (rhaphís, “needle”).^[2][8] Medieval Greek has ράβγω and ράφτω, the ancestors of Modern Greek ράβω “to sew”.^[9]

Timeline

• Mycenaean period – The tablets have the participle e-ra-pe-me-na.^[2]
• Homer – The Iliad uses it for stitching hides and for plotting.^[4][5]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for making a shoe and for plotting murder.^[5][6]
• 5th century BC – Euripides uses it for Dionysus sewn into Zeus' thigh.^[6][5]
• 3rd–1st century BC – The Septuagint uses it for sewing fig leaves.^[7]
• 12th–17th century – Vernacular Greek has ράβγω and ράφτω.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sew together, stitch.^[5][6]
2. To make by sewing.^[5]
3. (middle) To sew up; to have something stitched for oneself.^[5][6]
4. (figurative) To contrive, plot evil or murder.^[5][4]

Related words

• ῥαφή (rhaphḗ)
• ῥαφίς (rhaphís)
• ῥαψῳδός (rhapsōidós)
• ῥαψῳδία (rhapsōidía)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. ^ Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
4. ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
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 d e Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
8. ^ Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
9. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr