ἐρυθρός

From Proto-Indo-European *h₁rudʰrós (“red”), from the root *h₁rewdʰ-.

Cognates include Mycenaean Greek 𐀁𐀬𐀲𐀨 (e-ru-ta-ra), Latin ruber, Sanskrit रुधिर (rudhirá), Tocharian A/B rtär/ratre, and Old English rēad (English red).

Here Greek is the only language to preserve the sound of the laryngeal *h₁ at the beginning of the word, which became ε (e).

ἐρῠθρός • (eruthrós) m (feminine ἐρῠθρᾱ́, neuter ἐρῠθρόν); first/second declension

1. reddish, red
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 9.365–367:

     ἄλλον δ’ ἐνθένδε χρυσὸν καὶ χαλκὸν ἐρυθρὸν
     ἠδὲ γυναῖκας ἐϋζώνους πολιόν τε σίδηρον
     ἄξομαι,

     állon d’ enthénde khrusòn kaì khalkòn eruthròn
     ēdè gunaîkas eüzṓnous polión te sídēron
     áxomai,

     From there I will bring more gold and red bronze and fair-girdled women and much iron,

   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 5.165–166:

     αὐτὰρ ἐγὼ σῖτον καὶ ὕδωρ καὶ οἶνον ἐρυθρὸν
     ἐνθήσω μενοεικέ’,

     autàr egṑ sîton kaì húdōr kaì oînon eruthròn
     enthḗsō menoeiké’,

     And I'll put satisfying food and water and red wine on [the boat],

   • 6th century BC, Theognis of Megara, Elegies 449–450:

     εὑρήσεις δέ με πᾶσιν ἐπ’ ἔργμασιν ὥσπερ ἄπεφθον
     χρῡσὸν ἐρυθρὸν ἰδεῖν τρῑβόμενον βασάνῳ

     heurḗseis dé me pâsin ep’ érgmasin hṓsper ápephthon
     khrūsòn eruthròn ideîn trībómenon basánōi

     You will find me in all my actions like refined
     gold, red to the eye when rubbed against a touchstone

   Synonym: πυρρός (purrhós)

2. (substantive, ἐρυθρόν ᾠόν) egg yolk

• ἐρυθροπρόσωπος (eruthroprósōpos)

• English: erythro-
• English: threo-
• English: thre-
• Greek: ερυθρός (erythrós)

• ἐρυθρός in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• ἐρυθρός in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• ἐρυθρός in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• ἐρυθρός in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• ἐρυθρός in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• ἐρυθρός in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G2063 in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible, 1979
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • florid idem, page 329.
  • lurid idem, page 505.
  • red idem, page 684.
  • ruddy idem, page 724.