ἵστημι
Word
Validation
Word-form
Word-lemma
Etymon-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
English translation (word)
Transliteration (Etymon)
English translation (etymon)
Century
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Ed.
Quotation
Ἑστία· ἡ θεός· παρὰ τὸ εἵσασθαι, ὅ ἐστι ἱδρύσασθαι· αὕτη γὰρ πρῶτον οἶκον συνέστησεν. ἢ ὅτι πανταχοῦ ἵδρυται καὶ τιμᾶται. ⟦ἢ⟧ ὅτι τὰ ἀγάλματα αὐτῆς ἱδρύοντο καθήμενα, παρὰ τὸ ἧσθαι. ἢ παρὰ τὸ ἑστάναι, ὅ ἐστιν ἐν ἐνὶ τόπῳ ἱδρῦσθαι· καὶ τοὺς οἴκους γὰρ πάλαι ἑστίας ἐκάλουν, Ὅμηρος <ξ 159> ‘ἑστί<η> τ’ Ὀδυ[σ]σῆος ἀμύμονος’. καὶ ἡ εὐωχία δὲ ἑστία λέγεται διὰ τὸ συνέχειν καὶ ἱδρύειν τὰ σώματα πάντα. ἀπὸ μὲν τοῦ ἵζω ἱστία, ἀπὸ δὲ τοῦ ἕζω ἑστία
Translation (En)
Hestia "hearth": the goddess. From "to sit", that is, "to settle", because she herself founded the first house, or because she is everywhere installed and worshipped, or because her statues were installed sitting, from the verb "to sit". Or from hestanai "to stand", which means to settle in a place. And in the past houses used to be called "hearths" (Homer, Od. 14.159: ‘the hearth of blameless Ulysses’). And the banquet is called hestia because it unites and puts in place all the bodies. From hizō "to sit" comes histia, and from hezō "to sit" hestia
Parallels
Etym. Magnum, Kallierges, p. 382 (idem); Etym. Symeonis, epsilon 856 (idem); Etym. Gudianum, epsilon, p. 542 (Ἑστία· ... παρὰ τὸ ἑστάναι <ἐπὶ> τῇ γῇ); Eustathius, Comm. Od. 1, 253 (γίνεται δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς ἱστίας. ἥτις ὁμοίως τῇ ἑστία δασύνεται. αὐτὴ μὲν, ἀπὸ τοῦ ἵστασθαι. ἀπὸ τοῦ ἑστάναι δὲ, ἡ ἑστία); ibid., 2, 137 (Ἱστίην δὲ καὶ νῦν τὴν ἐσχάραν λέγει, τὴν καὶ ἑστίαν λεγομένην, τοῦτο μὲν ἐκ τοῦ ἑστάναι, ἐκεῖνο δὲ ἐκ τοῦ ἵστασθαι. αἰτία γὰρ αὕτη τοῦ τὸν οἶκον συνεστάναι καὶ ἵστασθαι διὰ τὰς ἐν αὐτῇ ὁσημέραι θυσίας); Scholia vetera in Callimachum, Hymn 4, schol. 325a (ἑστία ἐστὶ μέντοι κυρίως ὁ βωμὸς ὁ ἐν μέσῳ τῷ δόμῳ ἑστώς· ἐπειδὴ οὖν ἡ Δῆλος ἐν μέσῳ τῶν Κυκλάδων ἕστηκε, δοκεῖ ὥσπερ ἑστία τις καὶ βωμὸς εἶναι); Scholia in Hesiodum, Glossae in Theogoniam 454 (Ἱστίην. […] τὴν ἱσταμένην καὶ ἀκίνητον γῆν)
Comment
Paronymic etymology deriving the name Hestia from the fact that she is standing at the center of the house. The etymology was probably designed for the Goddess' name rather than for the common noun, as is explicit in the Gudianum's notice. The Ionic form ἱστίη is derived from the present ἵστημι (not in the Gudianum, but see Parallels), the Attic form ἑστία from the perfect ἕστηκα: this is parallel to the double etymology proposed by Philoxenus, taking the two dialect variants to two forms of the verb "to sit", ἵζω and ἕζομαι (see ἑστία / ἕζομαι)