Words and Collocations Containing roots -gr(i)eg- (-gring-, -grec-, etc.), -helen-, -bizant- in Modern Spanish

Stefanchikov Igor' Vyacheslavovich PhD in Philology Education and methodology specialist of the Department of Ibero-Roman Language Studies at Lomonosov Moscow State University 119991, Russia, Moscow, Leninskie Gory str., 1, p. 51 i.stf@ya.ru Other publications by this author

 Introduction

This article will consider lexemes and collocations with the roots -gr(i)eg- (and its variants), -helen- and -bizant-, recorded in the most authoritative dictionaries of the Spanish language.

The research material was academic explanatory dictionaries: version 23.5 Diccionario de la lengua espa?ola (DLE, until 2014 — Diccionario de la Real Academia Espa?ola, DRAE), as well as Diccionario de americanismos (2010), reflecting the peculiarities of lexical composition and usage in Latin America. At the first stage of the analysis, lexemes containing these roots were identified; then the semantics of the corresponding units were analyzed. The etymological information given in academic dictionaries was compared with the information contained in the most authoritative etymological dictionary of the Spanish language — Diccionario cr?tico etimol?gico castellano e hisp?nico by Juan Corominas and Jose Antonio Pascual (DCECH, 1980-1991).

To study the features of the modern use of individual lexemes, we turned to the corpus CREA ^[4] and CORPUS XXI ^[5]. The Corpus of Modern Spanish CREA (Corpus de referencia del espa?ol actual), compiled by the Spanish Royal Academy from 1995 to 2008. (in March 2021, the last annotated version was published — 0.3), includes more than 140 thousand documents (primarily texts from books and periodicals with a total volume of more than 160 million word uses), covering the period from 1975 to 2004. The Corpus of the Spanish language of the XXI century CORPUS XXI (Corpus del espa?ol del siglo XXI) — created by based on CREA, an improved tool, work on which was started in 2007 and continues to this day. The volume of CORPES XXI is, as of October 2022, more than 327 thousand documents of various genres (more than 350 million word uses) created from 2001 to 2021. The peculiarity of this corpus is the shift of the geographical distribution of texts towards Latin America (about 70%, Spanish texts — 30%).Root -gr(i)eg- and its variants

It seems advisable to start the analysis with the key lexeme griego, -a. The etymology of the word is quite transparent: from Lat.

Graecus, in turn, ascending to the Greek. (griego 1, ga <^...> Del lat. Graecus, y este del gr. ) ^[12]. The dictionary contains 7 values of the lexeme, and the first four do not raise questions:

1. ‘a native of Greece, a state in Europe' (1. adj. Natural de Grecia, pa?s de Europa. U. t. c. s. ^[12]);

2. ‘belonging to or relating to Greece or the Greeks' (2. adj. Perteneciente o relativo a Grecia o a los griegos. ^[12]);

3. ‘belonging to or relating to the Greek language' (3. adj. Perteneciente o relativo al griego (? lengua). L?xico griego. ^[12]);

4. ‘Indo-European language spoken in Greece and nearby areas’ (4. Lengua indoeuropea hablada en Grecia y ?reas vecinas. ^[12]).

The fifth value given in DLE and marked "colloquial" is 'incomprehensible speech' (5. m. coloq. Lenguaje considerado incomprensible. ^[12]). An example of usage is given: Es que estoy hablando en griego? (dosl. "Do I speak Greek?", cf. it's all Greek to me). The expression hablar en griego ‘to pronounce incomprehensible or incoherent words’ is recorded in the Dictionary of Americanisms as characteristic of Nicaragua, Puerto Rico and Peru: hablar. <…> ~ l¹. ? ~ en griego. loc. verb. Ni, PR, Pe. Decir palabras ininteligibles o incoherentes. ^[11]. Similar usage is registered in the CREA case:

Lo de menos es que se pusiera a hablar de cosas que nadie entend?a y de personas que para los amigos del abuelo no exist?an ni existir?an nunca: las pel?culas de Pudovkin o de Fritz Lang, la hermen?utica de Dilthey, la obra de Saussure o Lukasiewicz; <…> era como si Walter estuviera hablando en griego. (Paso, Fernando del: Palinuro de M?xico. Madrid: Alfaguara, 1982.) ^[4]

Korominas connects the appearance of this meaning with the fact that traditionally the Greek language was mentioned as if "separated by commas" with Latin, and also with the secondary role assigned to the Greek language by Catholic doctrine (in the Middle Ages, knowledge of the Greek language in Europe was extremely insignificant ^{[1, p. 125]}): "resultado indirecto de la costumbre de mencionarla junto con el lat?n, y de la doctrina observada por la Iglesia de que el griego no era necesario para la erudici?n catolica" ^{[3, p. 211]}. This meaning was first documented by Corominas in Don Quixote (1615): "esto para los labradores era hablarles en Griego o en gerigon?a" ^{[3, p. 211]}.

Derived from this meaning is the word greguer?a, which is included in the DLE in the main meaning of ‘noise, din’ (1. f. griter?a. ^[12]), as well as as a concept related to the field of literature — gregueria, or a literary genre created by the Spanish writer Ramon Gomez de la Serna (1888-1963); a short, actually aphoristic prose work in which, through humor and the use of metaphor, a certain aspect of reality is presented in an unusual light (2. F. T. lit. Composici?n muy breve en prosa, creada por el escritor espa?ol Ram?n G?mez de la Serna, que mediante el humor y la met?fora presenta una visi?n sorprendente de alg?n aspecto de la realidad; p. ej., El cuatro es la silla de los n?meros. ^[12]).

We will focus on the development of the meaning of ‘incomprehensible speech’ in more detail in the part of the work devoted to the gringo lexeme.

DLE also fixes for the griego lexeme the slang meaning of ‘anal intercourse’ (6. m. jerg. Coito anal. ^[12]). Probably, its roots should be sought in the stereotype of the widespread use of this sexual practice in ancient Greek culture. A similar use of the word is recorded in the CORPUS XXI.

Finally, another meaning of the lexeme, marked as colloquial and little used in the modern griego language is ‘sharper’: 7. m. coloq. p. us. tah?r (? jugador fullero) ^[12]. The history of the origin of this meaning is intertwined with the etymology of the word pair griesgo (obsolete. ‘collision, fight, fight' — 1. m. desus. Encuentro, combate, pelea. ^[12]) and gresca ‘noise, fun' (1. f. Bulla, algazara. ^[12]), ‘fight, brawl' (2. f. Ri?a, pendencia. ^[12]).

The lexeme griesgo, according to Corominas, was first recorded in the Castilian text in the XIII century, and in 1843. The dictionary of the Spanish Royal Academy supplies the griesco lexeme with the mark "obsolete" ^[10]. Since the beginning of the XVII century, the form gresca begins to be registered — its etymological doublet, borrowed, apparently, from the Catalan language: cf. starokatal. gr(e)esca ‘forbidden gambling’, which Korominas compares with Old French. griesche ‘gambling', raising both words to the Middle Latin. graeciscus ‘Greek', which in Castilian gave grecisco (see below).

The etymologist explains the development of the meaning of ‘sharper’ in griego and the general semantics of the lexemes griesgo and gresca by the stereotype of the Greeks as a people of free morals — libertines and lovers of gambling — common at least since the time of the Roman Republic ^{[3, p. 207]}: cf. lat. graecari ‘to imitate Greek ways', i.e. ‘imitate Greek customs' ^{[8, p. 770]} and pergraecari ‘to behave like a Greek, carouse, make merry', i.e. ‘carousing, indulging in drunken revelry’ (in Plautus: bibite, pergraecamini!; lit. "drink, talk about it!" (Plaut. most. 64) ^{[8, p. 1340]}). Such a "reputation", Korominas believes, could persist or worsen in the future — in particular, in the era of the Crusades, which led to further semantic evolution.

The dictionary entry griego, ga DLE also contains definitions of terms describing varieties of the Greek language: griego cristiano ("Christian Greek (language)" — the Greek language in which early Christian texts were written), griego moderno ("modern Greek (language)" — the Greek language spoken in Greece in modern times, in Cyprus and in the Greek communities of Australia and the USA).

In addition, there are several expressions and special concepts with the griego component, -a. These are:

calendas griegas 'Greek kalends', i.e. a term that will never come, because in ancient Greek culture there was no concept of "kalenda". It is worth noting that it is included in DLE and Latinism ad calendas graecas ‘in the Greek kalends’, ‘before the Greek kalends', approximately corresponding to Rus. "when cancer whistles on the mountain" or "after a little rain on Thursday."

cruz griega ‘Greek cross’ is an equilateral rectangular cross consisting of two identical crossbars that intersect at a central point, unlike cruz latina ‘Latin cross’ — a cross whose vertical crossbar is longer than the horizontal one located above the middle of the vertical one. The concept of iglesia en cruz griega is also mentioned separately, i.e. the church, in terms of representing a Greek cross.

fuego griego ‘Greek fire' is a combustible mixture for setting fire to enemy ships, popular with the Byzantines.

i griega ("and Greek") is the name of the letter Y (y) (also ye: i griega 1. f. ye. ^[12]), unlike "and Latin" (i latina) — I (i).

nariz griega ‘Greek nose’ — a straight nose, the line of which smoothly passes into the forehead.

pez griega — "Greek resin" in Spanish is called rosin, wood resin.

tel?n griego 'Greek curtain', also in Russian "intermission-sliding curtain" - a curtain of two halves fixed in the upper part of the stage, which moves apart and shifts from the center of the stage to the portals.

In two versions — greg?esco and greguesco (both are widely used in the same plural meaning, like pantal?n, pantalones ‘trousers, trousers’ — historicism is introduced into DLE, denoting the reality of the Golden Age era. These are gregeskos — wide short trousers popular in the XVI–XVII centuries (up to the middle of the thigh), which were worn together with stockings. The etymology of this word is ascribed by the Dictionary of the Academy to the same adjective griego: greg?esco De griego1. 1. m. Calz?n muy ancho que se usaba en los siglos XVI y XVII. U. M. en pl. con el mismo significado que en sing. ^[12]; greguesco 1. m. greg?esco. U. m. en pl. con el mismo significado que en sing. ^[12]. Corominas compares the Spanish lexeme with the Old Catalan. calces a la greguesca, Majorcan. cal?ons a la grega, aux. gr?gas does not find an explanation for the occurrence of the diphthongized variant of greg?esco ^{[3, p. 212]}.

The data of CREA (3 occurrences of the lexeme greg?esco, 0 — greguesco) and CORPES XXI (1 occurrence of the lexeme greg?esco, 4 — greguesco, including 3 in the same source) confirm their status of historicisms, noted in the Dictionary of Authorities (Diccionario de autoridades, 1726-1739) ^[9]: they are either They are found in texts that describe the era of the Golden Age, or (in texts addressed to the present) are used deliberately ironically to create a comic effect. Let us illustrate this consideration with an example from a 1986 article in the Spanish newspaper ABC:

Si van a hacer con la modernidad lo que han hecho con el cambio, apa?ados estamos: nos precipitan por el t?nel del tiempo, y se nos aparecen don Miguel Boyer y do?a Isabel Preysler con peluca empolvada y con miri?aque, don Alfonso Guerra con greg?escos, y don Guillermo Galeote con majad?rico, amonestado por don Gregorio Peces-Barba con tontillo. («CAF? MODERNO». ABC. Madrid: Prensa Espa?ola, S.A., 1986-04-28) ^[4].

Another lexical unit containing the root -gr(i)eg-, introduced in DLE, refers to the natural sphere. This is gregal ‘gregal' (from late Latin. and srednevek. lat. Graecalis ‘Greek, originating from Greece'; see the article Graeci, meaning. F in the Lewis—Short dictionary ^[6]) is the northeast wind, in the traditional classification of Mediterranean winds located between the Levant and Tramontana: gregal1 Del lat. Graec?lis 'de Grecia'. 1. m. Viento que viene de entre levante y tramontana, seg?n la divisi?n que de la rosa n?utica se usa en el Mediterr?neo. ^[12]. In the Dictionary of Authorities, it is also called "Greek" (griego): Llamase trambien Griego.^[9].

Let us leave out of the scope of this analysis the picagrega lexeme ‘red-headed shrike’ (1. f. alcaud?n. ^[12]), which A. Rosenblat ^{[14, p. 106]} and H. H. Belon Fernandez consider a composite with a verbal component picar (like picafigo, picaflor, picamaderos, picapinos, etc. ^{[2, p. 249]}), without commenting on the origin and semantic content of the nominal component grega.

The etymological status of the lexeme gringo, -a and the corresponding very extensive word-formation nest is debatable. DLE indicates that the etymology of the lexeme gringo is unknown, and gives 7 main meanings:

1. ‘a foreigner, especially a native English speaker, and generally speaking any language other than Spanish’ (1. adj. coloq. Extranjero, especialmente de habla inglesa, y en general hablante de una lengua que no sea la espa?ola. U. t. c. s. ^[12]);

2. ‘(about the language) foreign’ (2. adj. coloq. Dicho de una lengua: extranjera. U. t. c. s. m. ^[12]);

3. Recorded in Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela and Cuba, the meaning of ‘American, American' (3. adj. Bol., Chile, Col., Cuba, Ec., El Salv., Hond., Nic., Par., Per?, Ur. y Ven. estadounidense. U. t. c. s. ^[12]);

4. Uruguayan ‘Englishman, native of England' (4. adj. Ur. ingl?s (? natural de Inglaterra). U. t. c. s. ^[12]);

5. another Uruguayan meaning is ‘Russian, a native of Russia’, explained, apparently, like the previous one, by the presence of the corresponding emigrant community in the country (5. adj. Ur. ruso (? natural de Rusia). U. t. c. s. ^[12]);

6. Bolivian, Honduran, Nicaraguan and Peruvian ‘man with blond hair and complexion’ (6. m. y f. Bol., Hond., Nic. y Per?. Persona rubia y de tez blanca. ^[12]);

7. finally, the seventh meaning, colloquial — ‘incomprehensible language’ (7. m. coloq. Lenguaje ininteligible. ^[12]).

The Dictionary of Americanisms, noting one of the meanings highlighted above ('referring to the United States of America') as characteristic of a number of American countries, additionally supplies it, among others, with the mark "arbitrary": I. 1. adj. EU, Gu, Ho, ES, Ni, CR, Pa, RD, PR, Co, Ec, Pe, Bo, Ch. Relativo a los Estados Unidos. pop + cult ? espon ^ desp. ^[11].

Another group of meanings recorded by the dictionary is ‘(about a person) a foreigner of European appearance who does not speak Spanish’ (Mexico, Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile) and ‘(about a person) a foreigner with light skin and red, light or brown hair’ (Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile): II. 1. adj/sust. Mx, Ec, Bo, Ch. Referido a persona, extranjera de aspecto europeo que no habla espa?ol. pop + cult ? espon. 2. sust/adj. Ec, Bo, Ch. Persona extranjera de tez blanca y cabello pelirrojo, rubio o casta?o claro. pop + cult ? espon. ? choco; kanka. ^[11].

Among other words with this root included in DLE — gringada ‘group of Americans’ (Argentina, Honduras, Nicaragua) and razg. ‘a speech turn or act peculiar to Americans’ (Honduras and Nicaragua), gringuero razg. ‘(about a person) defending the interests of Americans or the US government’ (Honduras), engringarse‘(about a person) following the habits or lifestyle of gringos’ (Antilles, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay), as well as characteristic of the whole of Latin America synonymous with the previous agringarse and agringado ‘looking like a gringo, following the gringo lifestyle' ^[12].

The Dictionary of Americanisms records stable expressions with the gringo component: el gringo ‘(in some gambling games) number 5’ (Bolivia), a lo gringo ‘without underwear’ (Chile), gringo de agua dulce despect. ‘a person of Latin American origin with fair skin and eye color’ (Honduras) and hacerse el gringo ‘take an uncomprehending or absent-minded look’ (Colombia, Ecuador) ^[11].

As we can see, the vast majority of the meanings of the above-mentioned lexemes are the result of further semantic evolution of the basic meaning of ‘incomprehensible language'. According to Corominas, in the Pyrenean version of Spanish in the XVIII–XIX centuries, the word gringo as a distorted form of griego, with rare exceptions, is used not in relation to a person, but to the language and manner of speech: "Lo com?n en Espa?a, sin embargo, fu? aplicarlo s?lo al lenguaje: "cantar en gringo" en Bret?n de los Herreros, “?hablo yo lat?n o gringo?"en Antonio Flores" ^{[3, p. 211]}. In Latin America, this word has become widely used to refer to people who speak an incomprehensible language, including Romance (except Catalan and Galician-Portuguese), and later in various regions it showed a tendency to narrow the meaning: in Argentina — to refer to Italians, in Mexico — North Americans, etc. ^{[3, p. 211]}.

As for the transformation of the phonetic appearance of the word, Korominas reconstructs a possible two-stage phonetic evolution: 1) griego > grigo (a transition quite characteristic of the Castilian language); 2) grigo > gringo (a transition explained, probably, by an attempt to imitate an "alien" velar nasal vowel [?], characteristic, in particular, for English — for example, in the formant -ing-) ^{[3, p. 211]}.

The lexeme greco, -a, on the one hand, is a less common "variant" of the lexeme griego, -a (with the same etymology) in the meaning of 'belonging to or relating to Greece': 1. adj. Perteneciente o relativo a Grecia. ^[12]. The greco form, which is more characteristic of the Italian language, is primarily associated in the linguistic consciousness of Spaniards with a precedent name — a pseudonym under which the artist of Greek origin Dominikos Theotokopoulos, or El Greco, entered the history of art.

In addition, the lexeme greca has, according to DLE, two additional meanings. The first is ‘meander, orthogonal ornament’, the dictionary gives a detailed definition (2. f. Adorno consistente en una faja m?s o menos ancha en que se repite la misma combinaci?n de elementos decorativos, y especialmente la compuesta por l?neas que forman ?ngulos rectos. ^[12]).

The second, characteristic of Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, is a coffee beverage preparation machine (often used in public places)’ (3. f. Col., C. Rica, Ec., M?x., P. Rico, R. Dom. y Ven. Aparato para preparar la infusi?n del caf?, usado especialmente en sitios p?blicos. ^[12]). The dictionary of Americanisms narrows the area of distribution of this meaning — Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and Ecuador (marked "little-used"): greca. I. 1. f. RD, Co, Ve, Ec. p.u. Aparato para preparar el caf?, usado especialmente en sitios p?blicos. ^[11]. The question of the origin of this meaning, as far as we know, has not yet been studied, may become the subject of a separate study.

The meaning of ‘coffee machine’ is recorded in one of the later (2019) texts of the Corpus CORPUS XXI:

Se suele creer que hacer empresa en Colombia implica necesariamente tener oficina con greca y botell?n de agua Cristal (L?pez Garc?a, Diego: Consejos responsables de Actualidad Panamericana: c?mo no fracasar en el mundo digital. Bogot?: Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, 2019.) ^[5]

Nevertheless, in the somewhat earlier (and not related to the Colombian version) texts of the corpus, the meaning of ‘geyser coffee maker’ prevails:

Estaba organizando los pocos utensilios de cocina que ten?an cuando Rogelio se levant?, mientras el caf? herv?a en una greca cuya forma semejaba el vestido tachonado de una mujer de cintura angosta. (Ramos, V?ctor Manuel: La vida pasajera. s.l.: Instituto Castellano y Leon?s de la Lengua, 2011.) ^[5]

Gives a Dictionary of Americanisms and another, Puerto Rican, meaning of the word greco: ‘(about a person) stubborn’ (greco, -a. I. 1. adj. PR. Referido a persona, testaruda. ^[11]).

Curiously, in addition to the variants griego and greco, DLE cites two more single—root synonymous lexical units - grecisco and greciano, and the lexeme grecisco serves as a designation for natives/residents of Greece (1. adj. p. us. Natural de Grecia, pa?s de Europa. U. T. C. S. ^[12]), and to denote everything related to Greece and its inhabitants (2. adj. p. us. Perteneciente o relativo a Grecia o a los greciscos. ^[12]), whereas the lexeme greciano has only one meaning: ‘belonging to or relating to Greece' (1. adj. p. us. Perteneciente o relativo a Grecia. ^[12]). Both units are marked "little-used".

Referring to the corpus data allows us to conclude that we are really talking about very little-used lexemes in the modern language. It is significant that the only occurrence of the unit grecisco is fixed in CREA in the historical novel X. Torbado El peregrino ("The Pilgrim"):

iglesias y m?s iglesias y reba?os por toda Castilla. <…> Iglesias, campos, vi?as, palomares, reba?os, molinos…, qu? s? yo. Y casullas greciscas de seda y c?lices de oro y dalm?ticas persas… Tesoros m?s grandes que los de un rey. (Torbado, Jes?s: El peregrino. Barcelona: Planeta, 1994.) ^[4].

The lexeme greciano, in turn, is also found once, but already in CORPES XXI, and is used to convey an incorrect (according to the author of the text) ethnohoronym used by US President George W. Bush in relation to the inhabitants of Greece (English. Greeks vm. greeks):

El presidente Bush no se hizo precisamente famoso por su cultura general, como prueban meteduras de pata considerables como fueron confundir Eslovenia y Eslovaquia, llamar a los habitantes de Grecia «grecians» o grecianos, y a los de Kosovo «kosovorian» o kosovarianos. (Nez del Risco, Yaqui: «Bush y Clinton: ?qu? distintos!». Listindiario.com. Santo Domingo: listin.com.do, 2007-01-17.) ^[5]

Note another lexical unit with a variant of the root -grec-: fenogreco ‘fenugreek hay’ (1. m. alholva. ^[12]), cf. nomencl. lat. Trigonella foenum-graecum and the Russian version of the name of the plant — "Greek fenugreek".

It seems important to pay special attention to the "learned" words, which, being used mainly in texts of the corresponding functional styles, serve to describe the realities characteristic of the ancient world, or ways of interaction of foreign-language (including Spanish-speaking) cultures with Greek culture and the Greek language. These are grecismo ‘Grecism; a word or expression of Greek origin’, grecizar ‘to grecize’, grecolatino ‘Greco-Latin’, grecorromano ‘Greco-Roman'.

The lexeme grecisar is raised by the academic dictionary to Lat. graecissare and has two main meanings: ‘to give a Greek form to words from other languages’ (1. tr. Dar forma griega a voces de otro idioma. ^[12]) and ‘to use words or expressions from Greek in a pretentious manner' (2. intr. Usar afectadamente en otro idioma voces y locuciones griegas. ^[12]).

The words grecolatino and grecorromano are used to describe phenomena characteristic of the Greek and Roman civilizations (or the ancient Greco-Roman civilization when viewed as a whole): grecolatino, na 1. adj. Perteneciente o relativo a griegos y latinos. ^[12]; grecorromano, na 1. adj. Perteneciente o relativo a griegos y romanos, o compuesto de elementos propios de uno y otro pueblo. Polite?smo, imperio grecorromano. Arquitectura grecorromana. ^[12]. The first also serves to denote linguistic phenomena or units (for example, words or roots) common to Greek and Latin: 2. adj. Perteneciente o relativo al lat?n y al griego. Ra?ces grecolatinas. ^[12].

Finally, the lexeme grecorromano is also included in the DLE of the name of the sport — Greco-Roman wrestling: lucha grecorromana (1. f. lucha en la que dos contendientes pelean sin agarrarse por debajo de la cintura ni utilizar las piernas para derribar o trabar al otro, hasta que uno de ellos consigue que el rival toque el suelo con ambos om?platos a la vez durante varios segundos. ^[12]).

Root -helen-The "learned" variant of the designation of everything that relates to Greece and the Greek language, heleno, -a 'Hellenic, Hellenic', DLE considers gallicism (Del fr. hell?ne, y este del gr. , ^[12]), as well as almost all the corresponding word-formation field: helenismo (Del fr. hell?nisme, y este del gr. ^[12]), helenista (Del fr. hell?niste, y este del gr. ^[12]), helen?stico (Del fr. hell?nistique, y este de hell?niste 'helenista' e-ique '-ico'.

^[12]), helenizar (Del fr. hell?niser, y este del gr. ^[12]), helenizante (Del fr. hell?nisant, y este de hell?niser 'helenizar' y -ant '-ante'. ^[12]), helenizaci?n (Del fr. hell?nisation. ^[12]) and others.

At the same time, the lexical unit heleno also has a specific "historical" group of meanings, denoting persons belonging to one of the ancient Greek tribes (Achaeans, Dorians, Ionians, Aeolians), or everything that belonged or related to their representatives: 3. adj. Dicho de una persona: De cualquiera de los pueblos aqueo, dorio, jonio y eolio, cuya instalaci?n en Grecia, islas del Egeo, Sicilia y diversas zonas del litoral mediterr?neo, dio principio a la gran civilizaci?n de la H?lade o Grecia antigua. U. t. c. s. 4. adj. Perteneciente o relativo a los helenos (? individuos de uno de los pueblos de la Grecia antigua). ^[12].

The helenismo lexeme ‘Hellenism’ has 4 meanings:

1. ‘the period of Greek culture, which began with Alexander the Great and was characterized primarily by the inclusion of elements of the cultures of Asia Minor and Egypt’ (1. m. Per?odo de la cultura griega que se inicia con Alejandro Magno, y se caracteriza sobre todo por la absorci?n de elementos de las culturas de Asia Menor y de Egipto. ^[12]);

2. ‘a turn or expression characteristic of the Greek language or inherent exclusively to it’ — in this sense, the lexeme is actually synonymous with the word grecismo (2. m. Giro o modo de hablar propio y privativo de la lengua griega. ^[12]);

3. ‘the use of Greek in other languages' (3. m. Empleo de helenismos en otro idioma. ^[12]);

4. ‘the influence exerted by ancient Greek culture on subsequent civilizations and cultures’ (4. m. Influencia ejercida por la antigua cultura griega en la civilizaci?n y cultura posteriores. ^[12]).

The word helenista is recorded by the dictionary in two meanings: 'specialist in the field of ancient Greek language and culture', i.e. "Hellenist" (1. m. y f. Especialista en la lengua y la cultura griegas. ^[12]) and ‘a Jew who has adopted the Greek language and culture', i.e. "Jew-Hellenist" or "Jew-Hellenist" (2. m. y f. Jud?o que hablaba la lengua y observaba los usos de los griegos. ^[12]).

The lexeme helen?stico has, firstly, the meanings of ‘belonging to or relating to Hellenism or Hellenists' (1. adj. Perteneciente o relativo al helenismo o a los helenistas. ^[12]) and ‘belonging to or relating to the historical period from the death of Alexander the Great to the Roman conquest of Greece’ (3. adj. Perteneciente o relativo al periodo hist?rico que va desde la muerte de Alejandro Magno hasta la conquista romana.^[12]), as well as in relation to the Greek language — its variety, "based on the Attic dialect and spread throughout the Hellenistic world after the death of Alexander the Great" (2. adj. Dicho de una lengua griega: Basada en el dialecto ?tico y extendida por todo el mundo hel?nico despu?s de Alejandro Magno. ^[12]).

Another one group of lexemes with the same "learned" root is helenizar 'to spread Greek culture, customs or art to other peoples', i.e. to "Hellenize" (1. tr. Introducir las costumbres, cultura y arte griegos en otra naci?n.^[12]), 'to perceive the peculiarities of the culture or customs of the ancients the Greeks', i.e. "to Hellenize", and the dictionary fixes as a possible pronominal form of the verb helenizarse (2. tr. Adoptar rasgos y costumbres de los griegos antiguos. U. T. C. prnl. ^[12]), as well as derivatives of it helenizante 'hellenizing' (1. adj. Que heleniza. ^[12]) and helenizaci?n ‘hellenization' (1. f. Acci?n y efecto de helenizar. ^[12]).

Finally, two units with the prefix element pan-, which serve to describe the culturally significant phenomenon of pan-Hellenism, are also included in the dictionary. This is actually panhelenismo ‘Panhellinism’, or the ancient Greek movement for the unification of Greek states and communities; 1. m. En la antigua Grecia, movimiento que propugnaba la uni?n de los pueblos griegos. ^[12]) and panhelenista ‘belonging to or relating to Panhellinism' (1. adj. Perteneciente o relativo al panhelenismo. ^[12]), ‘supporter of Panhellinism', i.e. "pan-Hellenist" (2. adj. Partidario del panhelenismo. Apl. a pers., u. t. c. s. ^[12]).

Root -bizanc- (-bizant-)The last root that will be considered in this article is -bizant-.

The designation of the Eastern Roman Empire, Byzantium, well-established in the European historiographical tradition, is also characteristic of the Spanish language (Bizancio). The culture of this state was characterized by the predominance of the Greek component, which justifies the appeal to lexical units containing this root.

The DLE dictionary contains two corresponding dictionary entries — bizantino and bizantinismo.

The first, built to late Lat. Byzantinus, fixed in 4 values. First of all, this is: ‘a native of the ancient city of Byzantium (i.e. Constantinople — author's note) or the Byzantine Empire’ (1. adj. Natural de la antigua ciudad de Bizancio o de su imperio. ^[12]) and ‘belonging to or relating to Byzantium or the Byzantines’ (2. adj. Perteneciente o relativo a Bizancio o a los bizantinos. ^[12]).

The cultural influence of Byzantine art is reflected in another meaning of the word bizantino recorded in the lexicographical work: ‘belonging to or relating to the artistic tradition that arose in the Byzantine Empire in the IV century and spread in subsequent centuries’ (3. adj. Perteneciente o relativo al arte que surge en el Imperio bizantino en el siglo IV y se extiende en los siglos sucesivos. ^[12]).

Here, in the dictionary entry bizantino, na contains definitions of the literary concept novela bizantina ‘Byzantine novel' and it is reported that in Spain this genre was especially popular in the XVI–XVII centuries. as an imitation of ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine authors: 1. f. G?nero novelesco de amores contrariados, fugas azarosas y final feliz, que en Espa?a se desarroll? principalmente en los siglos XVI y XVII, a imitaci?n de autores helen?sticos, romanos y bizantinos. ^[12].

The lexeme bizantinismo ("Byzantinism"), formed from the adjective bizantino by means of suffixation (-ismo-), is used to denote the love of Byzantine art and its artistic forms: 1. M. Gusto por el arte y las formas art?sticas bizantinas. ^[12].

The last, fourth meaning of the bizantino lexeme is ‘(about a dispute, discussion) empty, overly sophisticated’ (4. adj. Dicho de una discusi?n: Artificiosa o demasiado sutil. ^[12]), as well as the second and third meanings of the bizantinismo lexeme ‘pointlessness, excessive sophistication' (2. m. Cualidad de bizantino (? artificioso). ^[12]), ‘unnecessary refinement or sophistication' (3. m. Sutileza o distinci?n in?til. Se pierde en bizantinismos. ^[12]) reflect a stereotyped view of Byzantine ideological and religious disputes as something meaningless or pointless (cf. rus. "scholastic" as the designation of something detached from life or characterized by fruitless reasoning). The third meaning is illustrated by the expression perderse en bizantinismos — 'to go into unnecessary subtleties, details'.

Note that in DLE — unlike, for example, the helenista ‘Hellenist’ discussed above), there is no bizantinista lexeme ‘Byzantinist, a scientist engaged in the study of the history, culture, heritage of the Byzantine Empire’, fixed in the CREA corpus:

Pero, con todo, resulta algo sorprendente que tratados que dedican cientos y cientos de p?ginas a relatar una larga guerra —estoy pensando en la historia de las Cruzadas del bizantinista Runciman— («Por Jos? Luis PINILLOS». ABC. Madrid: Prensa Espa?ola, S.A., 1987.) ^[4]

ConclusionSumming up the consideration of the semantics, etymology and features of the use of lexemes and stable expressions with the roots -gr(i)eg- (and its variants), -helen- and -bizant-, recorded in the most authoritative dictionaries of the Spanish language (DLE and Diccionario de americanismos) and registered in the corpus of modern Spanish CREA and CORPES XXI, it should be noted the richness and diversity of Spanish vocabulary related to the "Greek" etymological and semantic field, the presence of etymological doublets (griego/ gringo / greco) or partial semantic (griego/ greco/grecisco /greciano).

Quite expected, due to the importance of ancient Greek culture for European civilization and Spanish-speaking cultures, was a noticeable number of "learned" words that serve to describe the realities characteristic of the ancient world, or ways of interaction of foreign cultures with Greek culture and the Greek language: grecismo, grecizar, grecolatino, grecorromano, heleno, helenismo, helenista, helen?stico, helenizar, panhelenismo, etc. The "Greek" component is also contained in a number of concepts from the sphere of culture and art: cruz griega, tel?n griego, greguer?a, novela bizantina, etc. Several lexical units related to the natural sphere were also recorded: fenogreco, gregal, pez griega.

It was noted that the development of the semantics of some dictionary units was influenced by stereotypical ideas about Greece and the Greek people existing in the linguistic consciousness of the inhabitants of Spain and Latin America — as an example, we can mention the lexeme griego in the 5th and 6th meanings, the words gresca, bizantinismo, etc.). At the same time, an appeal to the Dictionary of Americanisms it allowed us to note some features of the use of the analyzed lexemes characteristic of Latin American variants of the Spanish language — in particular, the more active development of the word-formation field of the lexeme gringo, originally a phonetic variant of the basic lexeme griego.

In the future, a more in—depth study of the issue is possible - both with the involvement of materials from other dictionaries and corpora (in particular, lexicographic works containing detailed information about the use of lexemes in various national variants of the Spanish language, or phraseological dictionaries), and with the expansion of the range of lexical units under consideration (for example, the addition of other roots).

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