The one who stayed

"Svakog gosta tri dana dosta" (You will have enough of any guest after three days), Serbian proverb and one of my late grandmother's favorite sayings. We never stayed longer than 3 days in her house and she never stayed longer than 3 days in ours...

An old inn, hostel

Many years ago I lived in Greece for a year. I used to speak some Greek and one of my favorite words was the Greek word for house "σπίτι" (spiti). It always sounded funny to me. Because of spit, spitting. Yes I am that juvenile. 

But recently I was reminded of this word and suddenly it wasn't funny any more, because this time the first association that I got was not English "spitting", but Serbian "spiti" meaning to sleep...So I thought: what is a house? A house is a place where you can stay, sleep and eat "in", protected from the elements. 

But Serbian "spiti" - "to sleep" couldn't be the etymology of the Greek word "σπίτι" (spiti) - "house"...Could it?

So I decided to look at the official etymology of this Greek word. What I found is very interesting indeed...

The Greek word "σπίτι" (spiti) is said to come from Byzantine Greek "σπίτιν" ‎(spítin), from Koine Greek "ὁσπίτιον" ‎(hospítion), from Latin "hospitium" ‎meaning "lodgings, guest chamber".

Now Lating "hospitium" means a place of entertainment for strangers; lodgings, inn, guest-chamber, poorhouse. It is said to come from "hospes" meaning guest, visitor, stranger, foreigner but also host to guests, visitors, strangers, foreigners.

The word "hospes" is then said to derive from hypothetical Proto-Italic word "*hostipotis", an old compound of "hostis" and the root of "potis". The only direct Indo-European cognate of this non existent, proposed Proto-Italic word is common Slavic "*gospodь" ‎meaning lord, master. From this we have proposed, non existent "supposed" PIE reconstruction as "*gʰost(i)potis", a compound of PIE roots "*gʰóstis" and "*pótis".

The PIE root "*gʰóstis" means stranger. The descendants are

Germanic: *gastiz meaning stranger, guest, enemy
Slavic: *gostь meaning guest
Italic: *hostis meaning stranger, guest. What is interesting is that the only descendant of this Proposed Italic root is Latin word "hostis" which means an enemy of the state, a stranger...

Here is where it gets interesting. 

The PIE root "*gʰóstis" is said to "possibly" come from the PIE root "*gʰes-" ‎meaning to eat. So we don't know what the actual root is. The reason why the "possible" root is said to be "*gʰes-" meaning to eat, is probably because when you have guests you give them food??? And here is a proposed "possible" cognate: Sanskrit घसति ‎(ghasati) meaning to eat, to devour.

But how does this relate to the Latin meaning of the word which is "an enemy of the state, a stranger"? You are not going to be feeding the enemy?

Well here is another possible etymology which I think will fit much better:

In Slavic languages we have a word "stan" which means "stop, stay, remain, home of, place where one stays, camp, country...". The word comes from common PIE root "*steh₂-" which officially means "to stand" but I would also add "to stay, to remain".

No in Serbian we have the word "ostati" meaning "to stay, to stay behind". The word "osta" means "stayed, stayed behind". The expression "on osta" means "he stayed, he stayed behind" and the expression "ko osta" means "(he) who stayed, (he) who stayed behind". The  old word for "he who" is ga, go, gu which is still used in South of Serbia. That would make "go osta" = gosta = gost = guest...

And here are some other Sanskrit cognates which fit this etymology:

स्थिति (sthiti) stay
आस्था (AsthA) stay

कोष्ठ (koSTha) - room
गोष्ठा (goSThA) - place where cows are kept, cowshed, stable, pen, refuge. 

Both from ko, go + osta = that which + stay

So it is very much possible that the PIE root "*gʰóstis" comes from "osta" meaning "stay".

Now have a look at the meanings of all the words that stem from the proposed PIE root "*gʰóstis": stranger, guest, enemy. Can we derive these meanings from the word "osta"?

Guest is someone, a stranger, not one of us, not one who has a house in our village, who came to visit and stayed: "k(g)o osta". At the time when these words were developed the only people who came from the outside of the community were strangers and if they stayed they were the strangers who stayed. As guests.

If some stranger comes to the village and needs to stay the night you need a place for him to stay in. The place where people stay when they are in a foreign village is a hotel or a hostel. The English word "hotel" is a borrowing from French "hôtel" which is a version of "ho(s)tel" which has lost it's "s". The English word "hostel" is then said to come from middle English, from Old English reinforced by Old French (h)ostel (also found as osteaus, osteax, ostiaus, ostiax), which means "shelter, place to stay". This word is then said to come from Late Latin "hospitale" meaning "hospice", from Classical Latin "hospitalis" ‎meaning "hospitable" and we are back at "hospes" meaning guest, visitor, stranger, foreigner but also host to guests, visitors, strangers, foreigners.

Now if "osta" means "to stay, stay behind" then ostel, osteaus, osteax, ostiaus, ostiax can all be derived from the same root to mean "the place where you can stay, stay behind", which is the meaning of hostel, hotel, inn. Literally the place where foreigners can stay in...

In Irish the word for hotel is "ostan". If we look at the Irish dictionary we find these words based on the root "osta" meaning to stay:

osta, g. id., pl. iostaidhe, m., an apartment, place, habitation, dining room, an inn.
iostán, -áin, pl. id., m., a cottage, a hut, dim. of iosta.
iostas, -ais, pl. id., m., an entertainment, a lodging, accommodation, housing, quartering (pronunciation can be found here)
ósta, g. id., m., hospitality, entertainment; a lodging, an inn; teach ósta, an inn.
óstaidheacht, -a, f., lodging, entertainment.
óstánach, -aigh pl. id., m., an innkeeper (O'N.).
óstas, -ais, m., inn-keeping, entertainment.
óstóir, -óra, -óiridhe, m., a host, an inn-keeper.
óstóireacht. -a, f., hostelry.

This root exists in the Early Irish and the meaning is the place where strangers, guests can stay, like a house, a hut, a lodging, an inn. Sure you can eat in a house, in a hut, in a lodging, in an inn, but the main thing that strangers, guests can do there is "to stay inn"...

Sometimes the strangers who stay are not friendly strangers but enemies who stayed, as hostages. Or as prisoners.

The English word "hostage" means "a person given as a pledge or security for the performance of the conditions of a treaty or stipulations of any kind, on the performance of which the person is to be released". During that time a hostage is a guest, unwelcome guest (k(g)osta), but a guest nevertheless...The word comes from Old French "hostage", which comes from Old French "oste" which apparently comes from Latin "hospes" which comes from proposed PIE "*gʰost(i)potis" which comes from PIE "*gʰóstis" meaning guest, visitor, stranger, foreigner but also host to guests, visitors, strangers, foreigners. Now in the past hostages were given to the enemy. They were the ones "who were given to stay behind" as hostages. In Serbian "who stayed give him" = "ko osta da ga" = hostage.

One, on the first glance, very strange thins is that the PIE "*gʰóstis" means stranger, guest, enemy. Now when does a guest become an enemy? When he overstays the welcome and when you have to use force to get him out of your home, of your land. This is when guest becomes a hostile (enemy). The English word "hostile" comes from Middle French "hostile" which comes from Latin hostīlis, which comes from Latin "hostis" ‎meaning enemy, which comes from Proto-Italic "*hostis" which comes from PIE "*gʰóstis" ‎guest, stranger, enemy...

So here you have it. I believe that it is pretty obvious that the PIE "*gʰóstis" does not come from PIE root "*gʰes-" ‎meaning to eat, but that it comes from the PIE root "*steh₂-" which means "to stand, to stop" through Slavic word "osta" meaning stay, remain.

Now let's go back to the "supposed" PIE reconstruction "*gʰost(i)potis", a compound of PIE roots "*gʰóstis" and "*pótis". 

If the PIE root "*gʰóstis" has etymology which can be derived from a construct which was preserved in Slavic languages, is it possible that the other part of of the "*gʰost(i)potis", the PIE root "*pótis" can also be derived from a construct preserved in Slavic languages?

Actually it can. 

The PIE root "*pótis" means master, ruler, husband, father. Now the Slavic word "gospod" which means master, ruler, husband, father is actually short version of the word "gospodar" meaning master ruler. If the above etymology is correct, "gospod" can indeed be split into "gost" + "poda". The "poda" is short of "podari" which means "allows, gives as a gift, bestows, permits..." Which is exactly what a master, ruler, husband, father does...He decides who stays "under his roof", in his village, on his land, in his garden of Eden. The same goes for the hostel owner, inn keeper. 

So gospod = gost + poda = ko + osta + poda = who + stays + permits, allows, gives. Basically gospod is the hospitable one...

And finally lets go back to the Greek word that started all this: "σπίτι" (spiti) meaning "house". The word is said to come from Byzantine Greek "σπίτιν" ‎(spítin), from Koine Greek "ὁσπίτιον" ‎(hospítion), from Latin hospitium ‎meaning "lodgings, guest chamber".

Is it possible that this word does not actually come from the "*gʰost(i)potis" but instead from another construct preserved in Slavic languages? In South Serbian dialects of Slavic languages Latin word hospitium, meaning "lodgings, guest chamber, the place where guests sleep", can be broken into hospitium = ko osta + spi(e) + tu = who stayed (guest) + sleeps + there = lodging,  guest chamber. Even the proposed root of hospitium, the word "hospes" meaning guest, visitor, stranger, foreigner but also host to guests, visitors, strangers, foreigners can be broken into hospes = ko osta + spi(e) = who stayed (guest) + sleeps...

Interesting, don't you think?

Embassy

On the way to town today I passed by the Greek embassy. I looked at the sign on the wall and saw that the Greek word for embassy was "πρεσβεία" pronounced "presvia". The Greek word for the consulate was "προξενείο" pronounced "proksenio". When I came home I looked these words up in the etymological dictionaries. Then I started looking into the history of diplomacy. What I discovered was very interesting and surprising. But it also opened huge number of questions about what we think we know about the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age Balkan history. 

The word πρεσβεία is an ancient Greek word. You can see all the occurrences of this word in classical texts here.

The Thayer's Greek Lexicon says that the word "πρεσβεία" means "age, dignity, right of the first born, the business normally entrusted to elders, spec. the office of an ambassador, an embassy".

What is interesting is that this word has no known etymology.

I would like here to propose a potential etymology. 

If we look at all the meanings of this word we can see that they all have the same root meaning:

Age (old age) - Born before all others.
Dignity - the state or quality of being worthy of honor or respect. Being honored and respected before all others.
Right of the first born - Having rights for being born before all others.
The business normally entrusted to elders - The business entrusted to the ones who were born before all others.
Ambassador - The representative of all of us in the enemy camp. The one who goes to the enemy before all others.

All the meanings of the word "πρεσβεία" pronounced "presvia",  are related to the concept of being "before all others".

In Archaic South Slavic dialects "before all others" is "pre svija" = "before all (others)" = first, oldest,  advanced, representative. Also the expression "pre sve (svi) ja" means "before all me (I am)" = I am before all others. These South Slavic expressions produce all possible meanings of the Ancient Greek word "πρεσβεία". This means that this word is most likely a borrowing from Slavic languages into Ancient Greek. Except that according to the official history and linguistics this is not possible. According to the official history and linguistics there is no way that Ancient Greeks could have been in contact with anyone speaking Slavic languages at the time when this word, or more precisely this expression, was recorded for the fist time, which is well before the 5th century BC. So how did the Greeks acquire this word and from whom? Who spoke Slavic languages in early Iron Age Balkans?

One other thing.

The article entitled "History of Diplomacy" from Encyclopedia Britannica says this about Ancient Greek diplomacy:

Greek diplomacy begins with the city-states, where diplomats were sent for specific negotiations and would return after their mission concluded. The earliest evidence of Greek diplomacy can be found in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and Sparta, which was actively forming alliances in the mid-6th century BCE, and by 500 BCE it had created the Peloponnesian League.

Greek diplomacy took many forms, both historical and mythological. Heralds were the first diplomats sent on short-term visits to other city-states whose policies they sought to influence. They were protected by the Gods with an immunity that other envoys lacked and their protector was Hermes, son of Zeus and associated with all diplomacy. Interestingly, Hermes was also known as the protector of travelers and thieves due to his persuasiveness and eloquence but also for knavery, shiftiness, and dishonesty, imparting to diplomacy a reputation that its practitioners still try to live down.

So it was the elders that were sent as diplomatic representatives and their protector was Hermes, the messenger of Zeus. Do you remember the knobstick, the staff carried by the elders from my knobstick article? 

Now have a look at the staff carried by Hermes. It is represented in two ways.

Like this:

Or like this:

Does it remind you of the knobstick the symbol of the Elders?

It was the elders who were sent as ambassadors, messengers, the same elders who carried knobsticks as signs of their authority. It is then quite possible that these knobstick carrying elders were the inspiration for the anthropomorphic representation of Hermes, the divine ambassador, messenger of Zeus.

Questions questions questions....

The article entitled "History of Diplomacy" from Encyclopedia Britannica also says this about Ancient Greek diplomacy:

Commercial relations in ancient Greece were instead conducted on a continuous basis by an arrangement, or proxeni, where by the citizen of the city-state represented the economic interest of another city-state. A Proxenos, the citizen involved in the activity of proxeni, would use whatever influence he had in his own city to promote policies of friendship or alliance with the city he represented. Although proxeni initially represented one Greek city-state in another, Herodotus, in his famed work History, indicates that there were Greek consuls in Egypt in about 550 BCE. Commercial conventions, conferences, treaties, and alliances became common and in 4th century BCE, and for a period of 25 years there were eight Greco-Persian congresses, where even the smallest states had the right to be heard.

The Greek word "προξενη" pronounced proxeni means consul, but literally it means "among the foreigners", It comes from the Ancient Greek word "ξένος" meaning foreigner. 

The Greek word ξένος (pronounced ksénos) means: of parties giving or receiving hospitality: host and much more commonly guest, stranger, one who is hired: hired worker, mercenary, foreigner. The word is an Ancient Greek word first attested in the 5th century BC. The official etymology says that this word comes from ξένϝος, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰóstis (“guest, stranger”), whence also Proto-Germanic *gastiz, Proto-Slavic *gostь, Italic: *ɣostis. I agree the the Germanic, Slavic and Italic words come from the same root meaning guest which probably comes from the root *gʰes- (“to eat”) from which we have Sanskrit ghasati and Slavic jesti. But I believe that the Greek word ξένος comes from a completely different root. 

The article entitled "History of Diplomacy" from Encyclopedia Britannica also says that: 

"the earliest diplomatic negotiations occured during the time of the earliest tribal societies which had to negotiate marriage, trade and hunting rights." 

This is a very important piece of information. In patriarchal tribal societies marrying within the clan was strictly forbidden. Therefore the women had to be brought from outside of the tribe. These women were either stolen in so called "wolf raids" or marriage agreements were made between friendly tribes which allowed men from one tribe to take women from the other tribe and vice versa. In The Balkans this tradition still persists in rural areas. Where I come from in South of Serbia, the men from the villages from our side of the river always married women from the villages from the other side of the river, where people were "not of our tribe". People who were "not of our tribe" were not us and were therefore foreigners. And it was among the foreigners that men looked for women to become their wives. But it was not the young men who were sent to the foreigner's village to negotiate the marriage deals. It was the elders. They were sent to the foreign tribes to negotiate acquiring of women for their sons or grandsons, which is still the case in many parts of the world where the family, clan or tribe elders are still sent to negotiate these types of deals even today. Theses tribal elders probably carried with them their knobsticks, as symbols of their power. Is this why the knobstick is the stick carried by Hermes, the protector of messengers and diplomats?


I believe that this association between foreign and getting a woman to marry her was strong enough to give us the Greek word for a foreigner "ξένος". 

I lived in Greece for a year. One thing that I noticed was that Greeks were unable to pronounce Slavic harsh consonants like "ž" which is the first sound in the Slavic word "žena" meaning both woman and wife. The word "žena" is an ancient word which comes from the Indoeuropean root gʷḗn. 

If we look at the words which are derived from this root we see that all the words are split into three groups: 

dj, ž,s group (all the words for woman, wife start with dj, ž or s sound) 

Slavic: *žena
Proto-Indo-Iranian: *ǰanH- (pronounced žan or djan)
Indic:
Sanskrit: जनि (jani)
Iranian:
Avestan: (jə̄ni), (jaini), (jąni)
Baluchi: جن (jan)
Kurdish: jin / жьн / ژن
Middle Persian: NYŠE / zn' (zan)
Persian: زن (zan)
Ossetic: зӕнӕг (zænæg, “children, offspring”)
Pashto: جنۍ (jinëy)
Tocharian:
Tocharian A: śäṃ
Tocharian B: śana

k,g group (all the words for woman, wife start with k or g sound) 

Armenian:
Old Armenian: կին (kin)
Armenian: կին (kin)
Old Prussian: genno (vocative singular)
Germanic: *kwenǭ, *kwēniz
Hellenic:
Mycenaean Greek: (ku-na-ja)
Ancient Greek γυνή (gunḗ)
Phrygian: [script needed] (knaika)
Sanskrit: ग्ना (gnā)

b group (all the words for woman, wife start with b sound) 

Celtic: *benā
Old Irish: ben, bé
Irish: bean
Manx: ben
Welsh: ben
Cornish: ben
Beotian Greek: βανά (baná)

I believe that the above division shows clear linguistic dialectal split on genetic lines. The ž,s group of words comes from languages linked to R1a population.  The b group group of words comes from languages linked to R1b population. Where does the k,g group come from? Another subgroup of R1b or I2? I am not sure.

It is very interesting to note that Sanskrit contains both "g" word and "ž, dj" word for woman showing that Sanskrit is a composite language and that both so called "kentum" and "satem" dialects speaking tribes were present in Indus Valley during the formation of the Sanskrit language. It is also very interesting to note that Beotian dialect has "b" word for woman, just like Celtic languages. Is there a link between the Beotians and Celts? I believe so. Remember the article about the bo, vo words being the root for the words for cattle? I will talk about this soon. 

So back to Greeks and the word "ξένος" meaning foreigner. As I said Greeks are unable to pronounce Slavic harsh consonant "ž". So they pronounce the word "žena" like "zena" or "sena". In South Slavic languages the word to marry is "ženiti". This verb comes from Locative form of "žena" meaning woman. As the name implies, the basic meaning of the locative case is to show the location or position of an object represented by a noun or direction of movement towards the object. Locative of the word "žena" is "ženi" meaning towards, to the woman. This would mean that "ženiti" = "ženi + ti" literally means to "go to the woman + you", to "go to get the woman + you", "go to the woman's tribe to get the woman + you". 

The South Slavic words "ga, gu, go, gi" are used for pointing and mean him, her, it, them. If you wanted to say in South Slavic languages "you can marry him, her, them" you would say "ženi + ga, gu, gi" =  "marry + him, her, them" or "ga, gu, gi + ženi" = "him, her, them + marry". As I already said in patriarchal tribal societies it was a taboo to marry someone of your own kind. So the people you were allowed to marry "ga, gu, gi + ženi" the ones who were not "of our tribe", foreigners. If pronounced quickly this expression becomes "gženi". Greeks would pronounce this as "kseni" which is exactly the pronunciation for the adjective "ξένη" meaning foreign, not one of us, someone you can marry. 

So back to the Greek word "προξενη" pronounced proxeni meaning consul but literally meaning among the foreigners. In South Slavic languages the word pro means through, between, among and the word pri means with, next to, at. A man who moves to live with his wife's family or clan is in South Slavic languages said to be "pri ženi" meaning with the wife, with the wife's family, with the people who are not of our tribe, with the foreigners....

So how did this word enter Greek language? How did this happen when according to the official history and linguistics this is not possible, because there is no way that Ancient Greeks could have been in contact with anyone speaking Slavic languages at the time when this word, or more precisely this expression, was recorded for the fist time, which is well before the 5th century BC. So how did the Greeks acquire this word and from whom?
Who spoke Slavic languages in early Iron Age Balkans? 

But maybe I am asking the wrong question. Maybe I should ask if the Ancient Greeks were, as most people think, a genetically , culturally and linguistically homogeneous "nation". Or were they a bunch of genetically, culturally and linguistically disparate tribes living side by side. Of which some spoke a language which will later become known as Slavic. And were the "Ancient Greeks" just a product of hundreds of years of cooperation, intermarrying and conquest, a result of complex, often forced mixing. After all all the other European "nations" were created like this, why would the "Ancient Greeks" be any different?


So what do you think about all this?