The Origin of the Feminine Gender in
Indo-European

Adjectivization of substantives

Greek adjectives in -ης (-ᾱς) such as ὑβριστής ‘violent, wanton’ are generally considered a secondary type, originating in an adjectivization of masculine substantives that became predominantly used in apposition. 

Τυφάονα ...  | δεινόν θ’ ὑβριστήν τ’ ἄνομόν τε ‘Typhon, terrible, outrageous, lawless’ (Hes. Th. 306–7)

While this is certainly the preferred analysis for a former agent noun such as ὑβριστής (: ὑβρίζω ‘wax wanton, run riot’), there is a second type of adjectives in ‑ης that behave (in meaning and function) just like the thematic adjectives they are seemingly derived from. Very often they appear as attributes or epithets in noun phrases.

One case is ἀργεστής ‘bright’ evidently from *arges-tó- ‘having, causing brightness’ (the s-stem *ἄργος, -εος ‘brightness’ being the basis of ἀργεννός ‘white’ < *arges-nó- and ἐν-αργής, -ές ‘visible’), attested in ἀργεστᾶο Νότοιο ‘of the white South Wind’ (Il. 11.306, 21.334), and ἀργεστὴν Ζέφυρον ‘clear Zephyrus’ (Hes. Th. 379), ἀργεστέω Ζεφύροιο (Hes. Th. 870). 

Another case is the adjective ἐτήσιος ‘yearly, annual’: in a syntagma with ἄνεμοι it seemingly becomes an adjective of the first declension (viz. ἐτησίαι ἄνεμοι pl. ‘the Etesian winds’). Compare the following passage in which it is used twice: once as the predicate of βορέαι in the shape ἐτήσιοι, and once as an attribute of βορέαι in the shape ἐτησίαι: 

Διὰ τί βορέαι μὲν ἐτήσιοι γίνονται, νότοι δὲ οὔ; … ἔτι οἱ μὲν ἐτησίαι βορέαι καθεστηκότος τοῦ ἀέρος πνέουσι (θέρους ǁ γὰρ πνέουσιν)

‘Why are the Boreas winds Etesian, whereas the Notos winds are not? … Furthermore, the Etesian Boreas winds blow when the air is still (for they blow in summer)’ (Arist. Pr. 940a35) 

My feeling is that the core of Greek adjectives in -ης (-ᾱς) could go back to an inherited stock of thematic adjectives in *-e-h₂ that were used adnominally in definite noun phrases in which *-h₂ had determining function.

Support for the reconstruction of determined thematic adjectives ending in *-e-h₂- might come from Anatolian, where the Luwian adjectival suffixes -izza- and -azza- do not show i-mutation and therefore probably continue *-i(s)k̑eh₂- and *-e/otyeh₂-, respectively. Just like the Greek forms in -ης, -ᾱς, these adjectives appear predominantly in adnominal position: cf. nom. sg. c. URUTaurišizzaš wašḫazzaš DLAMMA-aš ‘the patron tutelary deity of Taurisa’, dūwazza- ‘broad (?)’ (acc. sg. c. dūwazzan tiyammin ‘broad (?) earth’), urazza- ‘great, big’ (nom. sg. c. urazzaš DUTU-az ‘great sun god’), ārrazza- ‘?’ (epithet of a sheep).

I published a paper on this topic in the proceedings of the 32nd Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference:

2022 “Greek adjectives in -ης (-ᾱς). An overlooked type?” In David M. Goldstein, Stephanie W. Jamison, and Brent Vine (eds.). 2022. Proceedings of the 32nd Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference. Hamburg: Buske. 125–42. [download]

Homeric κνίση 

The noun κνίση is an epic and poetic word that appears 17 times in the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Homeric Hymn to Apollo. It is also used—mostly in its unepic variant κνῖσα—by Aeschylus, Aristophanes, and Aristotle, as well as by a number of late and Hellenistic authors.

The surprising thing about κνίση is its twofold meaning. In about the half of its Homeric and the majority of post-Homeric attestations, the word refers to the smell or savor of a burnt sacrifice, the steam and odor of fat that exhales from roasting meat, or the odor of savory meat in general.

     (1) ἕρδον δ᾿ Ἀπόλλωνι τεληέσσας ἑκατόμβας

ταύρων ἠδ᾿ αἰγῶν παρὰ θῖν᾿ ἁλὸς ἀτρυγέτοιο·

κνίση δ᾿ οὐρανὸν ἷκεν ἑλισσομένη περὶ καπνῷ.               (Il. 1.315–7)

‘And they offered to Apollo perfect hecatombs

of bulls and goats by the shore of the unresting sea;

and the savor of it went up to heaven, eddying amid the smoke.’

However, in roughly the other half of Homeric attestations and the odd post-Homeric instance, κνίση has a quite different meaning. In these cases, the noun refers to caul fat, also known as lace fat or fat netting, which is the thin membrane that surrounds the internal organs of cows, sheep, and pigs, and, by extension, to animal fat in general.

     (2) μηρούς τ᾿ ἐξέταμον κατά τε κνίσῃ ἐκάλυψαν

δίπτυχα ποιήσαντες, ἐπ᾿ αὐτῶν δ᾿ ὠμοθέτησαν.            (Od. 12.360–1)

‘They cut out the thigh bones and covered them with a double layer of fat

and laid the raw bits upon them.’

The key to the understanding of this double meaning is that this caul fat, in which the sacrificial bones would be wrapped prior to their burning, was largely responsible for the steam and odor of the burnt offering as the fat would melt in the blistering heat and trickle down into the fire in sizzling drops. Thus, κνίση is the word for both the savor of the smoldering sacrifice and for that, which causes it. This semantic dichotomy is not only quite astonishing; it also calls for an explanation.

This paper sets out to find a rationale for the two meanings of κνίση. Departing from an etymological and formal analysis of the word, whose connection with Lat. nīdor, -ōris m. ‘vapor, steam, smell (from anything boiled, roasted, burned)’ < *kníhₓd-ōs has long been recognized, it will be argued that κνίση preserves the twofold reading of a denominal adjective *knihₓd-s-ó-, viz. on the one hand in a literal meaning ‘full of steam, savor’ (cf. κνισός in this meaning in Athenaeus) and on the other hand in a causative meaning ‘causing steam, savor’ (leading to κνίση ‘caul fat’). This situation is nicely comparable with the double meaning of adjectives like δακρυόεις ‘full of tears, weeping’ (cf. δακρυόεσσα … κούρη Il. 21.506) and ‘causing tears’ (cf. πόλεμον … δακρυόεντα Il. 5.737) and fits well into a broader picture of the different possible readings of denominal ‘possessive’ adjectives. 

Unmetrical Verses in Homer

Given the overall number of lines in the Homeric poems, the amount of verses that are considered unmetrical (i.e., that cannot be read as a flawless hexameter) is very low. There are several different sources of unmetricality; some are rooted at very early stages of the poetic tradition, some, on the other hand, on their very end and even beyond. 

Textual Corruption

In some cases, the unmetrical nature of a line is simply due to a corruption of the text. This is quite common in many of the less trustworthy medieval codices, but in some cases—if happened early enough—such a corruption might have become the unequivocally transmitted reading in our Vulgate. One such case is Il. 18.458 υἱεῖ ἐμῷ ὠκυμόρῳ δόμεν ἀσπίδα καὶ τρυφάλειαν with a ludicrous sequence υἱεῖ ἐμῷ ὠκυμόρῳ. It is quite conceivable, though, that the original text, as proposed by Nauck, had υἷι μοι ὠκυμόρῳ and that a copyist, still mindful of the line initial υἱεῖ ἐμῷ δόμεναι just some 300 verses earlier in the same book (Il. 18.144), assimilated the phrase by analogy. 

Quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus

Even if "Homer" was an excellent poet, there are verses whose unmetricality needs to be ascribed to the composer(s) of the Iliad and/or the Odyssey himself. These unmetricalities are often a consequence of the nature of oral composition. They include cases in which established formulas are inflected and transposed into other case forms but kept in their metrical slot (e.g. Il. 18.288 |7 μέροπε̄ς ἄνθρωποι# with a brevis in longo based on the formulaic |7 μερόπων ἀνθρώπων# 7× Il.), or when two hemistichs or formulary templates are put together that do not fit seamlessly (e.g., the formulary template #–⏕ ἐς λιμένα |5 scanning perfectly at Od. 10.87 #ἔνθ’ ἐπεὶ ἐς λιμένα κλυτόν … but resulting in in a (syllaba) brevis in (elemento) longo at Od. 10.141 ναύλοχον ἐς λιμένα, καί τις θεὸς ἡγεμόνευεν). 

Language Change

A number of cases of unmetrical behavior can be explained by language change. A prime example is the consonantal effect of a no longer existing digamma. An unmetrical line end such as Il. 13.573 ὣς ὃ τυπεὶς ἤσπαιρε μίνυνθά περ, οὔ τι μάλα δήν# becomes a perfect hexameter once we restore the etymologically guaranteed digamma in δήν < *dwā́n, thus lengthening the second syllable of μάλα.

The study of unmetrical verses can therefore potentially open up a window not only into the fascinating prehistory of the hexameter and the epic tradition, but also into the written transmission of the texts. In addition, it can help understand the intriguing practices of oral poetry.