ἕζομαι
Word
Validation
No
Word-form
εὕδω
Word-lemma
Etymon-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
heudō
English translation (word)
to go to bed, to sleep
Transliteration (Etymon)
hezomai
English translation (etymon)
to sit
Century
9 AD
Source
idem
Ref.
Epimerisms homerici ordine alphabetico traditi, epsilon 8
Ed.
A.R. Dyck, Epimerismi Homerici: Pars altera. Lexicon αἱμωδεῖν [Sammlung griechischer und lateinischer Grammatiker (SGLG) 5.2] Berlin - New York: De Gruyter, 1995
Quotation
εὗδον (Β 2): ἐκ τοῦ ἕδω δασυνομένου· ἐκ τούτου γίνεται καὶ ἕδος, ἡ καθέδρα. ἕδω οὖν τὸ ῥῆμα, καὶ ἵνα μὴ συνεμπέσῃ τῷ ἐσθίω, πλεονασμῷ τοῦ υ γίνεται εὕδω.
Translation (En)
heudon "they were sleeping" (Il. 2.2): from hedō "to sit", with a rough breathing. From the latter also comes hedos "seat", and kathedra "chair". Hedō, thus, is the verb, and to avoid confusion with <edō> meaning "to eat", by addition of /u/, it becomes heudō.
Parallels
Etym. Gudianum, epsilon, p. 554 (idem); Etym. Symeonis, epsilon 901 (Εὗδον· ἐκ τοῦ ἕδω καὶ δασύνεται· γέγονε δὲ ἐκ τοῦ ἕδος, ἡ καθέδρα, ἕδω καὶ ἵνα μὴ συνεμπέσῃ τῷ ἐσθίω, πλεονασμῷ τοῦ υ καὶ γίνεται εὕδω).
The etymology might be implicit in Tzetzes' Commentarium in Ranas, 200a καθεδεῖ] καθευδοίη.
Modern etymology
Unknown. Maybe cognate with Goth. sutis "quiet, calm" (Beekes, EDG)
Persistence in Modern Greek
MG still has καθεύδω as a learned word
Entry By
Le Feuvre
Comment
Derivational etymology. The actual shape of the word is assumed to have been produced by a formal manipulation meant to avoid homonymy between /hedo/ "to sit" and /edo/ "to eat", which in fact were no longer distinguishable in a psilotic stage of the language. The formal modification consists of adding a vowel. From the semantic point of view, "to sleep" is derived from "to sit" because in the Middle Ages sleeping in a sitting position was common.