ὑάκινθος Ancient Greek · revision 2278

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=Homer, Iliad|origins=qfa-sub-grc}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /hy.á.kin.tʰos/^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /yˈa.cin.θos/^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /yˈa.cin.θos/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''ῠ̔ᾰ́κινθος''' (huákinthos) ''m'' (genitive ῠ̔ᾰκίνθου); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+ Aeolic [[ὐάκινθος|tr=uákinthos]], and Cretan ϝακ- and βακ- in derived names.^(CGL 2021)^(Beekes 2014)^(Beekes 2010)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is clearly Pre-Greek, [[der|qfa-sub-grc|-]]: it has the Pre-Greek suffix -ινθ-, and the Cretan forms with ϝακ- and βακ- point to an initial Pre-Greek *w- rather than a prothetic u-.^(Beekes 2010)^(Beekes 2014)^(Wiktionary) Frisk calls it an unexplained loanword, and PHILOGLOSSA rates its Pre-Greek status as very reliable.^(Frisk 1960)^(PHILOGLOSSA)

+

+ Whether it is related to [[la|vaccīnium|t=blueberry]] is disputed.^(Beekes 2010)^(Frisk 1960) Meillet and Deroy took both as independent loans from a Mediterranean language.^(Beekes 2010)^(Frisk 1960)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ Hesychius says the plant is named after [[Ὑάκινθος|tr=Huákinthos]], the Laconian youth whom Apollo killed by an unlucky throw of the discus.^(Hesychius)^(LSJ 1940) Beekes thinks Hyacinthus was probably a Pre-Greek god displaced by Apollo, who sank to a hero but also merged with him as Apollo Hyakinthos.^(Beekes 2010)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ It first appears in the ''Iliad'' (14.348) and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter.^(LSJ 1940)^(PHILOGLOSSA) Cunliffe takes it as probably the bluebell or wild hyacinth.^(LSJ 1940)^(Cunliffe 1924)^(PHILOGLOSSA)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Ancient writers used the name for several plants: the wild hyacinth or squill, ''Scilla bifolia'', and the cultivated larkspur of Theophrastus, on whose petals people read the letters AI or AIAI, a lament for Hyacinthus or for Ajax, from whose blood it was said to have sprung.^(LSJ 1940)^(Wiktionary) The CGL leaves the identification open, probably an iris or an orchid.^(CGL 2021) Sappho, Theognis and Theocritus mention the flower.^(CGL 2021)^(Beekes 2010)

+

+ From the Septuagint on it is also a blue colour or blue cloth (Exodus, Philo, Josephus, papyri), and in Revelation and later writers a blue precious stone, perhaps aquamarine.^(Beekes 2010)^(Lust 2003)^(LSJ 1940) The Doric festival [[Ὑακίνθια|tr=Huakínthia]] (Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon) and the Doric month Ὑακίνθιος were named after Hyacinthus.^(Beekes 2010)

+

+ [[el|υάκινθος|tr=yákinthos]] is a learned word from Hellenistic Greek, which Triantafyllidis glosses with the everyday ζουμπούλι.^(Triantafyllidis 1998) [[en|hyacinth]] (1550s) is a re-Greeked form of jacinth, which came through Old French and Medieval Latin.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * Homer – the ''Iliad'' names the flower.^(LSJ 1940)^(Cunliffe 1924)

+ * 7th–6th century BC – Sappho mentions the flower.^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021)^(DGE)

+ * 5th century BC – Herodotus mentions the Hyakinthia festival.^(Beekes 2010)^(DGE)

+ * 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus describes the cultivated larkspur.^(LSJ 1940)^(DGE)

+ * 2nd century BC – Moschus alludes to the letters on its petals.^(LSJ 1940)^(DGE)

+ * 1st century AD – Revelation lists a precious stone of this name.^(LSJ 1940)

+ * 1550s – English ''hyacinth'', re-Greeked from ''jacinth''.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A flower: the wild [[m|en|hyacinth]] or [[m|en|squill]]; the [[m|en|larkspur]]; perhaps an iris.^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A blue colour; blue cloth.^(Beekes 2010)^(Lust 2003)

+ # A blue precious stone, perhaps [[m|en|aquamarine]].^(LSJ 1940)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[ὑακίνθινος|tr=huakínthinos]]

+ * [[Ὑακίνθια|tr=Huakínthia]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[Ὑάκινθος|tr=Huákinthos]]

+ * [[la|vaccīnium]]

+ * [[en|hyacinth]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}