κλίνω

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Thu, 08/05/2021 - 14:03

Word-form

κλίσιον

Transliteration (Word)

klision

English translation (word)

outbuildings round a hut or a house

Transliteration (Etymon)

klinō

English translation (etymon)

to lean, to recline

Author

Porphyry

Century

3 AD

Source

Idem

Ref.

Quaestionum Homericarum ad Odysseam pertinentium reliquiae, 24.208

Ed.

H. Schrader, Porphyrii quaestionum Homericarum ad Odysseam pertinentium reliquiae, Leipzig: Teubner, 1890

Quotation

Κλίσιον δὲ αὐτὸ προσηγόρευσεν ἀναλόγως τῇ κλισίᾳ, ἥτις στρατιωτικὴ σκηνή ἐστιν αὐτοσχέδιος. ἀπὸ γὰρ τοῦ κλίνω, ἐξ οὗ καὶ κλιντὴρ καὶ κλισμός (καὶ οἱ μὲν ἔχοντες ἀπέρεισιν τοῖς ὤμοις κλισμοί, οἱ δ’ ἄλλοι θρόνοι). […] ἄλλο δὲ τὸ παρὰ Ἀττικοῖς κλίσιον· τοῦτο μὲν γὰρ ἁμαξῶν καὶ ζευγῶν δεκτικόν. ἐμοὶ δὲ δοκεῖ, φησὶ Δωρόθεος, ἀπὸ τοῦ κεκλίσθαι κατωνομάσθαι, τοῦ σημαίνοντος τὸ περιειληφέναι καὶ περιέχειν, περιέχειν δὲ ἐν μέσῳ τὸν οἶκον.

Translation (En)

He (Homer) called it klision by analogy with klisia "hut", which is the warrior's hut, built on the spot. It comes from klinō "to lean", from which also klintēr "bed" and klismos "seat" (and those seats having a back for the shoulders are called klismoi, the others thronoi). […] But the word klision in Attic is something else: it is the place where wagons and yokes are stored. And it seems to me, says Dorotheus, that it was so called from kekl<e>isthai, which means to enclose en contain, and il contains the house in the middle.

Comment

Correct etymology which is the regular one for κλισία, and which is here applied to κλίσιον. Porphyry makes a distinction between the Homeric κλίσιον, from κλίνω, and the Attic κλίσιον, allegedly from κλείω (see κλίσιον / κλείω), etymology which he takes from Dorotheus of Ascalon.

Parallels

Scholion Od. α 426f Pontani (περίσκεπτον χῶρον τὸ κλίσιον καλεῖ, ὃ ἐκ τοῦ κλίνω γίνεται)

Modern etymology

Κλίσιον belongs to the group of κλίνω "to lean, to recline", PIE *klei- "to lean" (Beekes, EDG)

Persistence in Modern Greek

The word no longer exists in MG

Entry By

Le Feuvre