σχέθω
Word
Validation
No
Word-form
σκιά
Word-lemma
Etymon-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
skia
English translation (word)
shadow
Transliteration (Etymon)
skhethō
English translation (etymon)
to hold back, to retain
Century
2 AD
Reference
Peri Pathôn, III/2, p. 380
Edition
A. Lentz, Grammatici Graeci III/2, Leipzig 1870
Source
Choeroboscus
Ref.
Epimerismi in Psalmos, p. 175
Ed.
T. Gaisford, Georgii Choerobosci epimerismi in Psalmos, vol. 3, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1842: 1-192.
Quotation
Σκιά. παρὰ τὸ σχέθω, τὸ κωλύω, σχιὰ καὶ σκιὰ, ἢ ἐκ τῆς σὺν προθέσεως καὶ τοῦ κίω τὸ πορεύομαι, ἡ συμπορευομένη καὶ μὴ ἐῶσα ἡμᾶς.
Translation (En)
Skia "shadow". From *skhethō "to hold back", *skhia and skia. Or from the prefix sun- "with" and kiō "to go", the one always moving with us and not leaving us
Parallels
Scholia in Aristotelis Categorias, p. 85 b 42 (ἡ σκιά, ὡς Ἡρωδιανός φησι, παρὰ τὸ σχέθειν. ἐπέχει γὰρ ἡμῶν τὸ εἰδέναι ἢ τῶν προσόδων καὶ τῶν πολλῶν ἐνεργειῶν ἐπέχει)
Modern etymology
Isolated within Greek. Old IE word for "shadow" *skh2-ieh2, cognate with OCS sěnь (Beekes, EDG)
Persistence in Modern Greek
Yes
Entry By
Le Feuvre
Comment
This etymology is explicitly attributed to Herodian by a scholion to Aristotle's Categories (see Parallels). It cannot be separated from the etymology given by the same Herodian for σκότος "darkness" (see σκότος / σχέθω), which has a very similar wording to the explanation in the scholion to the Categories. This can be interpreted either as a proof that Herodian considered that σκιά and σκότος had the same etymology, or, which seems more likely, that Herodian gave this etymology for σκότος and glossed the latter by σκιά, from where compilers attributed to σκιά the etymology of σκότος.