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Ancient and Medieval Greek Etymologies

σῶμα

Word

σῶμα

Validation

Yes

Word-form

σῶμα

Word-lemma

LSJ

Etymon-lemma

LSJ

Transliteration (Word)

sōma

English translation (word)

body

Transliteration (Etymon)

sōzō

English translation (etymon)

to save

Author

Plato

Century

4 BC

Source

Idem

Ref.

Cratylus 400c

Ed.

J. Burnet, Platonis Opera, Oxford UP, 1903

Quotation

δοκοῦσι μέντοι μοι μάλιστα θέσθαι οἱ ἀμφὶ Ὀρφέα τοῦτο τὸ ὄνομα, ὡς δίκην διδούσης τῆς ψυχῆς ὧν δὴ ἕνεκα δίδωσιν, τοῦτον δὲ περίβολον ἔχειν, ἵνα σῴζηται, δεσμωτηρίου εἰκόνα· εἶναι οὖν τῆς ψυχῆς τοῦτο, ὥσπερ αὐτὸ ὀνομάζεται, ἕως ἂν ἐκτείσῃ τὰ ὀφειλόμενα, [τὸ] "σῶμα," καὶ οὐδὲν δεῖν παράγειν οὐδ᾿ ἓν γράμμα

Translation (En)

"But I think it most likely that the Orphic poets gave this name, with the idea that the soul is undergoing punishment for something; they think it has the body as an enclosure to keep it safe (sōzētai), like a prison, and this is, as the name itself denotes, the "safe" (sōma) for the soul, until the penalty is paid, and not even a letter needs to be changed" (transl. Fowler)

Comment

In this etymology which is presented as a correction to the σῶμα σῆμα ("the body is a tomb") attributed to the Orphic tradition, Plato takes sōzein "to save" in the meaning "to keep hold of", not "to rescue". The same etymology is also found with the meaning that the body keeps the soul safe (see under etymon σῶος). Plato underlines the fact that no formal manipulation is required, which is indeed exceptional in the Cratylus

Parallels

Scholia in Batrachomyomachiam 81, 8-14 (ὡσαύτως καὶ σῶμα σημαίνει δύο· τὸ ζῶν καὶ τὸ τεθνηκός. (1’a) καὶ τὸ μὲν ζῶν ἐτυμολογεῖται ἀπὸ τοῦ σῶον εἶναι, ἤγουν ὑγιὲς καὶ ὁλόκληρον· (1’b) ἢ ἀπὸ τοῦ σώζω, σώσω, σέσωκα, σέσωσμαι καὶ ἐξ αὐτοῦ σῶσμα καὶ ἐκβολῇ τοῦ σ σῶμα τὸ σεσωσμένον καὶ ὑγιὲς ὑπάρχον· ἢ (1’c) ἀπὸ τοῦ ζῶ ζῶμα καὶ διαλύσει τοῦ ζ εἰς σ καὶ δ—τὸ γὰρ ζ ἐκ τούτων σύγκειται καὶ εἰς αὐτὰ πάλιν διαλύεται—καὶ ἐκβολῇ τοῦ δ σῶμα. (2’) τὸ δὲ τεθνηκὸς παρὰ τὸ σημεῖον καὶ μνημεῖον εἶναι τοῦ ποτε ζῶντος)

Modern etymology

Unclear. The older meaning is "corpse, carcass" (of an animal), and it could mean etymologically "stiff" (Beekes, EDG)

Persistence in Modern Greek

The word is still used in MG, basically with the meanings: 1) Body/organism, 2) material object, 3) the total number of persons belonging to the same social/administrative/disciplinary team, 4) a collection of works/texts (corpus) (Triandafyllidis, DMG).