Ancient Greek

Noun

ῐ̔στός • ‎(histós) m ‎(genitive ῐ̔στοῦ); second declension

1. mast
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 15.289

     ἱστὸν δ᾽ εἰλάτινον κοίλης ἔντοσθε μεσόδμης στῆσαν ἀείραντες

     The mast of fir they raised and set in the hollow socket.

2. shinbone
   • Oppian, Cynegetica 1.408
3. an (unknown) constellation
   • 400 CE – 600 CE, Aëtius, Sixteen Books on Medicine 3.164
4. (weaving) beam (of a loom; see usage notes)
5. (weaving) loom
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 6.491

     ἀλλ᾽ εἰς οἶκον ἰοῦσα τὰ σ᾽ αὐτῆς ἔργα κόμιζε ἱστόν τ᾽ ἠλακάτην τε

     Nay, go thou to the house and busy thyself with thine own tasks, the loom and the distaff.

6. (weaving) web
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 3.125

     τὴν δ᾽ εὗρ᾽ ἐν μεγάρῳ: ἣ δὲ μέγαν ἱστὸν ὕφαινε δίπλακα πορφυρέην

     She found Helen in the hall, where she was weaving a great purple web of double fold.

Usage notes

Unlike modern looms, the beam of an Ancient Greek loom stood upright.

Inflection

Derived terms

Descendants

• English: histo-
• Greek: ιστός m ‎(istós, “mast, loom, web”)

References

• ἱστός in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• ἱστός in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• ἱστός in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• «ἱστός» in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• «ἱστός» in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• ἱστός 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, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • frame idem, page 342.
  • loom idem, page 499.
  • mast idem, page 516.
  • warp idem, page 963.