ἐρῆμος

See also: έρημος and ἔρημος

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

ἔρημος (érēmos) — Attic, early

Etymology

From Proto-Hellenic *erḗmos (whence also Mycenaean Greek 𐀁𐀩𐀗 (e-re-mo)), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁réh₁mos, from *h₁reh₁- (“to rest; quiet”).^[1] The semantic development would have been "quiet (place)" > "uninhabited, lonely (place)". Note that the Mycenaean term is used for describing land.

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /e.rɛ̂ː.mos/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /eˈre̝.mos/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /eˈri.mos/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /eˈri.mos/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /eˈri.mos/

Adjective

ἐρῆμος • (erêmos) m (feminine ἐρήμη, neuter ἐρῆμον); first/second declension

lonely, lonesome, solitary
1. (of places)
  - c. 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 3.270
  - c. 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 10.520
  - 460 BCE – 430 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 3.32
  - 460 BCE – 430 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 2.32
  - 460 BCE – 430 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 3.102
  - 175 CE – 235 CE, Claudius Aelianus, On the Nature of Animals 7.48
2. (of persons or animals)
  - c. 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 5.140
  - 472 BCE, Aeschylus, The Persians 734
  - 458 BCE, Aeschylus, Agamemnon 862
  - c. 450 BCE, Sophocles, Women of Trachis 530
  - 409 BCE, Sophocles, Philoctetes 228
  - 388 BCE, Aristophanes, Plutus 447
  - 440 BCE – 390 BCE, Andocides, Against Alcibiades 15
  - 361 BCE, Demosthenes, Against Midias 111
  - 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Laws 927C
  - 46 CE – 120 CE, Plutarch, Julius Caesar 63
  - 423 BCE, Euripides, The Suppliants 775
  - 446 BCE – 386 BCE, Aristophanes, Fragments 393
3. (of conditions)
  - 406 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 1114
  - 406 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 1716
(with genitive) bereft of, void or destitute of, undefended
- 460 BCE – 430 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 2.32
- 460 BCE – 430 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 4.17
- 460 BCE – 430 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 6.23
- 429 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus Rex 57
- c. 420 BCE, Sophocles, Electra 1405
- 431 BCE – 404 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 8.96
- 460 BCE – 430 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 9.118
1. (of persons) abandoned by
  - 460 BCE – 430 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 7.160
  - 406 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 1717
  - 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Laws 927D
  - 442 BCE, Sophocles, Antigone 919
  - 4th century BC, Isaeus, Apollodorus 31
2. (with no bad sense) wanting, without
  - 460 BCE – 430 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 9.63
  - 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Laws 862E
(substantive, usually feminine, occasionally masculine) an undefended action, in which one part does not appear, and judgement goes against them by default
- 480 BCE – 411 BCE, Antiphon of Rhamnus, First Tetralogy 1.7
- 431 BCE – 404 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 6.61
- 361 BCE, Demosthenes, Against Midias 81
- 445 BCE – 380 BCE, Lysias, For Polystratus 18
- 361 BCE, Demosthenes, Against Midias 85
- 361 BCE, Demosthenes, Against Midias 87
- 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Demosthenes, Against Apatourius 33
- 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Demosthenes, Against Boeotus 2 17
- 361 BCE, Demosthenes, Against Midias 93
- 400 BCE – 387 BCE, Plato, Apology 18C
(feminine substantive) desert

Inflection

First and second declension of ἐρῆμος; ἐρήμη; ἐρῆμον (Attic)

Number	Singular			Dual			Plural
Case/Gender	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	ἐρῆμος erêmos	ἐρήμη erḗmē	ἐρῆμον erêmon	ἐρήμω erḗmō	ἐρήμᾱ erḗmā	ἐρήμω erḗmō	ἐρῆμοι erêmoi	ἐρῆμαι erêmai	ἐρῆμᾰ erêmă
Genitive	ἐρήμου erḗmou	ἐρήμης erḗmēs	ἐρήμου erḗmou	ἐρήμοιν erḗmoin	ἐρήμαιν erḗmain	ἐρήμοιν erḗmoin	ἐρήμων erḗmōn	ἐρήμων erḗmōn	ἐρήμων erḗmōn
Dative	ἐρήμῳ erḗmōi	ἐρήμῃ erḗmēi	ἐρήμῳ erḗmōi	ἐρήμοιν erḗmoin	ἐρήμαιν erḗmain	ἐρήμοιν erḗmoin	ἐρήμοις erḗmois	ἐρήμαις erḗmais	ἐρήμοις erḗmois
Accusative	ἐρῆμον erêmon	ἐρήμην erḗmēn	ἐρῆμον erêmon	ἐρήμω erḗmō	ἐρήμᾱ erḗmā	ἐρήμω erḗmō	ἐρήμους erḗmous	ἐρήμᾱς erḗmās	ἐρῆμᾰ erêmă
Vocative	ἐρῆμε erême	ἐρήμη erḗmē	ἐρῆμον erêmon	ἐρήμω erḗmō	ἐρήμᾱ erḗmā	ἐρήμω erḗmō	ἐρῆμοι erêmoi	ἐρῆμαι erêmai	ἐρῆμᾰ erêmă
Derived forms	Adverb			Comparative			Superlative
Derived forms	ἐρήμως erḗmōs			ἐρημότερος erēmóteros			ἐρημότᾰτος erēmótătos
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension. The feminine often uses the masculine forms.

Derived terms

ἐρημῑ́της (erēmī́tēs)
ἐρημόω (erēmóō)

Descendants

→ Coptic: ⲉⲣⲏⲙⲟⲥ (erēmos)
→ Latin: erēmus, herēmus

From the Attic form ἔρημος (érēmos):

Greek: έρημος (érimos)

References

^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), “*rōō-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11)‎^[1], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 415-6

“ἐρῆμος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940), A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“ἐρῆμος”, in Liddell & Scott (1889), An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
“ἐρῆμος”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891), A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
ἐρῆμος in Bailly, Anatole (1935), Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
ἐρῆμος in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
“ἐρῆμος”, in Slater, William J. (1969), Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
Woodhouse, S. C. (1910), English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[2], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
- abandoned idem, page 1.
- bare idem, page 62.
- barren idem, page 63.
- benighted idem, page 74.
- bereft idem, page 74.
- blank idem, page 81.
- blasted idem, page 82.
- defenceless idem, page 204.
- denude idem, page 211.
- depopulated idem, page 212.
- deprive idem, page 213.
- desert idem, page 215.
- deserted idem, page 215.
- desolate idem, page 216.
- destitute idem, page 218.
- devoid of idem, page 220.
- disconsolate idem, page 230.
- dreary idem, page 252.
- empty idem, page 269.
- exposed idem, page 295.
- forlorn idem, page 338.
- forsaken idem, page 339.
- hermit idem, page 397.
- isolated idem, page 461.
- lonely idem, page 498.
- naked idem, page 550.
- out of idem, page 581.
- recluse idem, page 679.
- retired idem, page 707.
- secluded idem, page 746.
- sequestered idem, page 754.
- solitary idem, page 792.
- sterile idem, page 816.
- unfrequented idem, page 919.
- uninhabited idem, page 922.
- unoccupied idem, page 926.
- unpeopled idem, page 927.
- untenanted idem, page 934.
- untravelled idem, page 935.
- untraversed idem, page 935.
- untrodden idem, page 935.
- vacant idem, page 941.
- void idem, page 956.
- waste idem, page 965.
- wasted idem, page 965.
- wild idem, page 979.
Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), “ἐρῆμος”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), volume I, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 456-457

[1] Kroonen, Guus (2013), “*rōō-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11)‎^[1], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 415-6

[1]