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How to search better - cannot locate YSTERA

Posted: January 9th, 2012, 4:26 pm
by Dean_Poulos
Hello everyone,

I’m hoping someone can assist me with how to conduct a better search. Although a bit off topic, I can understand if this is not an appropriate question for the forum. If so, I will ask elsewhere but though it best to try here first since I’ll get the best answer.

With the exception of what I believe to be the most often used word for womb (cited below) in the Koine, two other words do come up [μήτρα MHTRA & γαστήρ GASTHR]. In modern, although [κοιλία KOILIA] has carried over for womb, people generally use it for belly, while [στομάχι STOMAXI] is used for stomach/belly and [μήτρα MHTRA] is specific to the uterus.

I cannot find anything in modern or BDAG that would lead me to believe [υστερία hYSTERIA] means womb. Nor have I ever heard the words [hystéra, υστέρα, hysterikos, υστερικός ] in modern and I cannot locate them in BDAG as uterus. Closest I can think of is Hysterics [ὑστερισμός, YSTERISMOS]

Although every dictionary lists the two words as defined below and although ἐκτομία (removal/cutting) is accurate, if asked the meaning of the Greek words compromising hysterectomy I’d be forced to answer “the removal of hysteria” and I cannot reason some type of semantic change, i.e., awe and full or being full of awe to awful. Any assistance on finding where or how a “hystera” became a womb would be appreciated. Thanks all.

“A hysterectomy (from Greek ὑστέρα hystera "womb" and εκτομία ektomia "a cutting out of")

hys•te•ria \his-ˈter-ē-ə, -ˈtir-\ noun
[New Latin, from English hysteric, adjective, from Latin hystericus, from Greek hysterikos, from hystera womb; from the Greek notion that hysteria was peculiar to women and caused by disturbances of the uterus] 1801 : a psychoneurosis marked by emotional excitability and disturbances of the psychic, sensory, vasomotor, and visceral functions.”

From BDAG:

“κοιλία, ας, ἡ (κοῖλος ‘hollow’; Hdt., Aristoph.+; loanw. in rabb.) in its broadest sense the ‘cavity’ of the body (Gen 3:14 w. στῆθος) that stores such organs as the stomach, intestines, and womb, then in ref. to such parts.

① the organ of nourishment

ⓐ the digestive tract in its fullest extent, belly, stomach (Jer 28:34; Ezk 3:3; Sir 36:18 al.) εἰς τὴν κ. χωρεῖν (cp. Plut., Mor. 699f εἴπερ εἰς κοιλίαν ἐχώρει διὰ στομάχου πᾶν τὸ πινόμενον. Even the last part of the alimentary canal is κ.: Herodian 1, 17, 10) Mt 15:17; cp. Mk 7:19.
ⓑ esp., the body’s receptacle for aliments, belly, stomach (so Diod S 2, 58, 3 between φάρυγξ [gullet] and σπλάγχνα [intestines]; Aelian, VH 1, 1 al.) of Jonah’s fish (Jon 2:1f; Just., D. 107, 2) Mt 12:40. Of the human stomach 1 Cor 6:13. γεμίσαι τὴν κ. ἔκ τινος fill the stomach w. someth. i.e. eat one’s fill of someth. Lk 15:16 v.l. Of the working of a scroll eaten by the writer of the Apc. (cp. Ezk 3:3) πικρανεῖ σου τὴν κ. Rv 10:9; cp. vs. 10; δουλεύειν τῇ κ. be a slave to one’s stomach Ro 16:18; ὧν ὁ θεὸς ἡ κ. whose god is their stomach Phil 3:19.

② womb, uterus (Epict. 2, 16, 43; 3, 22, 74; Dt 28:4, 11; Job 1:21; Ruth 1:11; TestJob 24:2) Lk 1:41, 44; 2:21; 11:27; 23:29; J 3:4; B 13:2 (Gen 25:23). ἐκ κοιλίας from birth i.e. from earliest youth (Judg 16:17 A; Is 49:1) Mt 19:12; Lk 1:15; Ac 3:2; 14:8; Gal 1:15; καρπὸς τῆς κ. fruit of the womb (cp. Mi 6:7; La 2:20) Lk 1:42.

③ seat of inward life, of feelings and desires, belly (but Eng. prefers the functional equivalent heart): κ. denotes the hidden, p 551 innermost recesses of the human body (=טֶןבֶּ Job 15:35; Pr 18:20; 20:27, 30; Sir 19:12; 51:21), so that a variation betw. κοιλία and καρδία becomes poss.: Ac 2:30 v.l. (κοιλία and καρδία for ὀσφῦς); Rv 10:9 (v.l. καρδία) (Hab 3:16; Ps 39:9; cp. schol. on Nicander, Alexipharmaca 21 τοῦ στόματος τῆς κοιλίας, ἣν οἱ μὲν καρδίαν καλοῦσιν, οἱ δὲ δοχεῖον τῶν ἐντέρων τῆς βρώσεως [καρδία of the upper opening of the stomach: Theocr. 2, 49]; PGM 4, 3141: the κοιλία is the place where the καρδία is found). ποταμοὶ ἐκ τῆς κ. αὐτοῦ ῥεύσουσιν ὕδατος ζῶντος rivers of living water shall flow from the person’s heart J 7:38 (thought of as a scripture quot., though its source can no longer be determined w. certainty. The expr. may be proverbial; cp. Cicero, De Orat. 2, 39 [162]. The κ. has often been taken to be that of the believer, but there is an increasing tendency to punctuate w. a period after ἐμέ in vs. 38 rather than after πινέτω at the end of vs. 37 [s. RSV mg. and NRSV text] and understand κ. of Jesus; s. Hdb. ad loc.; JJeremias, Golgotha 1926, 80–84; HBornhäuser, Sukka ’35, 34–39; Bultmann, Ev. d. Joh. ’41, 228–30. For patristic interpr., HRahner, Biblica 22, ’41, 269–302; 367–403. Differently, A-MDubarle, Vivre et Penser 3, ’43/44, 238–41). JBlenkinsopp, NTS 6, ’59, 95–99.—B. 253. DELG s.v. κοῖλος. M-M. TW.””

Thank you

Dean Poulos

Re: How to search better - cannot locate YSTERA

Posted: January 9th, 2012, 10:09 pm
by Ken M. Penner
Dean_Poulos wrote: I cannot find anything in modern or BDAG that would lead me to believe [υστερία hYSTERIA] means womb. Nor have I ever heard the words [hystéra, υστέρα, hysterikos, υστερικός ] in modern and I cannot locate them in BDAG as uterus. Closest I can think of is Hysterics [ὑστερισμός, YSTERISMOS]
...
hys•te•ria \his-ˈter-ē-ə, -ˈtir-\ noun
[New Latin, from English hysteric, adjective, from Latin hystericus, from Greek hysterikos, from hystera womb; from the Greek notion that hysteria was peculiar to women and caused by disturbances of the uterus] 1801 : a psychoneurosis marked by emotional excitability and disturbances of the psychic, sensory, vasomotor, and visceral functions.”
BDAG may not have an entry for ὑστέρα, but LSJ does. See http://stephanus.tlg.uci.edu/lsj/lsj.ht ... ontext=lsj

Re: How to search better - cannot locate YSTERA

Posted: January 10th, 2012, 2:28 am
by George F Somsel
ὑστέρα, Ion. ὑστέρη, ἡ, womb, Hp.VM22, Aph.5.22, Arist.HA493a25, Thphr.HP9.13.3, Sor.1.2, etc.; freq. in pl. ὑστέραι, Ion. gen. -έων, Hdt.4.109, Hp.Coac.515, Pl.Ti.91c:—with a play on the Adj. ὑστέρα (the second woman), Ath.13.585d.
2. ovary of animals, Arist.GA720a26, Arist.HA511a22; of birds, ib. 564b21; reptiles, ib. 508a13; fishes, ib. 566a7. (Lit. the upper or protruding part, Skt. úttaras ‘upper’, Comp. of úd ‘upwards’; so also Skt. udáram ‘belly’; cf. ὕστρος· γαστήρ, Hsch.; or perh. ἡ ὑ. (sc. μήτρα or δελφύς) the back part.)

Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott, Henry Stuart Jones and Roderick McKenzie. A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford; New York: Clarendon Press;, 1996.

Re: How to search better - cannot locate USTERA

Posted: January 10th, 2012, 2:42 am
by Dean_Poulos
Ken, George, thank you... (I think the question is answered. Don't rely on only one resource and be mindful of the accurate b-Greek Translit!) U not Y

ὑστέρα , Ion. ὑστέρη , ἡ, A. womb, Hp.VM22, Aph.5.22, Arist.HA 493a25, Thphr.HP9.13.3, Sor.1.2, etc.; freq. in pl. ὑστέραι, Ion. gen. -έων, Hdt.4.109, Hp.Coac.515, Pl.Ti.91c:—with a play on the Adj. ὑστέρα (the second woman), Ath.13.585d.

2. ovary of animals, Arist.GA720a26, HA511a22; of birds, ib.564b21; reptiles, ib.508a13; fishes, ib.566a7. (Lit. the upper or protruding part, Skt. úttaras 'upper', Comp. of úd 'upwards'; so also Skt. udáram 'belly'; cf. ὕστρος: γαστήρ, Hsch.; or perh. ἡ ὑ. (sc. μήτρα or δελφύς) the back part.)

Henry George Liddell. Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by. Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1940. [[The National Science Foundation provided support for entering this text.]]

Dean Poulos

Re: How to search better - cannot locate YSTERA

Posted: January 10th, 2012, 9:39 am
by Stephen Carlson
The vocabulary of the NT is not large enough to identify a lot of the roots for modern medical terminology and other use of Greek, but the LSJ classical dictionary will have them.

Stephen