ζάω
Word
Validation
Yes
Word-form
σῶμα
Word-lemma
Etymon-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
sōma
English translation (word)
body
Transliteration (Etymon)
zaō
English translation (etymon)
to live
Source
Idem
Ref.
Scholion 81, l. 12-14
Ed.
A. Ludwich, Die homerische Batrachomyomachia des Karers Pigres, Leipzig, 1896
Quotation
ἢ 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
Translation (En)
Or it is from zō "I live", zōma, and through decomposition of the z into s and d – because the letter z is composed of those two sounds and can be decomposed back into them – and through expulsion of the d, sōma "body"
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).
Entry By
Le Feuvre
Comment
This etymology relies on the phonetic observation that ‹z› was a combination of [s] and [d], and that the transmitted version of Aeolic poetry (Sappho, Alcaeus) regularly has the spelling ‹zd› instead of ‹z›. This enables the scholar to invent a mean form *zōma / sdōma (which does not exist), from ζῆν "to live", from which he can then derive the attested σῶμα. This original etymology deriving the word for "body" from the verb "to live" is not repeated elsewhere in Greek scholarly literature and goes against the Homeric use which uses σῶμα only for corpses