*γῶ
Word
Validation
Yes
Word-form
γῆρας
Word-lemma
Etymon-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
gēras
English translation (word)
old age
Transliteration (Etymon)
*gō
English translation (etymon)
to give way
Century
9 AD
Source
Idem
Ref.
Epimerismi homerici Iliad 1, 29c
Ed.
A. Dyck, Epimerismi homerici, pars prior epimerismos continens qui ad Iliadis librum A pertinent, Berlin 1983
Quotation
γῆρας: ἀπὸ τοῦ ῥέω, τὸ φθείρω, καὶ ὑπερθέσει τοῦ ε, ἔρω, ἡ μετοχὴ ἔρων καὶ προσθέσει τοῦ γ, γέρων, καὶ ἐξ αὐτοῦ γέρας καὶ Ἰωνικῶς γῆρας. ἢ παρὰ τὸ γῶ, τὸ χωρῶ, πρὸς ὃ πάντες χωροῦμεν. | ἢ παρὰ τὸ γῆ, γῆρας· τοῦτο ἀπὸ τοῦ εἰς γῆν ὁρᾶν
Translation (En)
Gēras "old age": from rheō "to destroy", and through metathesis of the [e], erô; participle erōn, and through adjunction of the [g] at the beginning, gerōn "old man"; from the latter comes geras "gift of honor", and in Ionic gēras. Or from *gô "to give way", that toward which we all go. Or from gē "earth", gēras, that one comes from "to look at the earth"
Parallels
There is no parallel
Modern etymology
Γῆρας belongs to the inherited PIE root *g̑erh2- "old", and is connected within Greek with γέρας, γέρων, and γραῦς (Beekes, EDG)
Persistence in Modern Greek
Γήρας in Modern Greek is a learned word, the usual word is the derivative γηρατειά (neuter plural)
Entry By
Le Feuvre
Comment
This etymology, contrary to most etymologies provided for γῆρας, does not parse the word as a compound but as a derivative, from one of Philoxenus' monosyllabic verbs *γῶ, a ghost word which is supposed to mean "to give way, to go". That leaves the end of the word unaccounted for. The etymology relies on the alternation between [ē] and [ō]. From the semantic point of view, it refers to the passing of time, a motion verb being given as the etymon of a word referring to a period in time