ἐρέω

Validation

Yes

Word-form

ἀρητήρ

Transliteration (Word)

arētēr

English translation (word)

priest

Transliteration (Etymon)

ereō

English translation (etymon)

to say

Author

Etym. Gudianum Additamenta

Century

11 AD

Source

Idem

Ref.

Etym. Gudianum Additamenta, alpha, p. 192

Ed.

E.L. de Stefani, Etymologicum Gudianum, fasc. 1 & 2, Leipzig, 1:1909; 2:1920

Quotation

Ἀρητήρ· ὁ ἱερεύς. παρὰ τὸν ῥήσω μέλλοντα· ἢ παρὰ τὸ ἀρᾶσθαι, ὅ ἐστιν εὔχεσθαι· ἢ παρὰ τὸ αἴρειν τὰς χεῖρας εἰς προσευχήν· ἢ παρὰ τὸ ἀρέσκειν θεῷ

Translation (En)

Arētēr means "priest" (hiereus). It comes from the future rhēsō ("I will say"), or from arâsthai, which means "to pray", or from the fact that he raises (airein) his hands in prayer, or from "to please" (areskein) God.

Comment

This etymology is found only in the Additamenta to the Gudianum, twice. Its starting point is an inflected form, the future ῥήσω of "to say", a ghost-form given by the grammarian Philoxenus (and after him by Orion, Choeroboscus etc/) as the verbal basis from which are derived ῥῆμα etc. The priest gets his name from the fact that he is the one who utters the prayer. The initial [a] was probably understood as the "intensive" alpha (ἐπιτατικός), but that is not explicit in the formulation we have

Parallels

There is no parallel

Modern etymology

Ἀρητήρ is the regular agent noun derived from ἀράομαι

Persistence in Modern Greek

Νο. Αρά still exists as a learned form of κατάρα "malediction, curse".

Entry By

Le Feuvre