ζειά

From Proto-Hellenic *dzeyyā́, from Proto-Indo-European *yéwos (“barley, cereal”). Compare Persian جو (jow, “barley, rye”).

ζειᾱ́ • (zeiā́) f (genitive ζειᾱ́ς); first declension (almost always in the plural, Epic, Attic)

1. einkorn wheat, Triticum monococcum, used as fodder for horses
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 4.41:

     πὰρ δ’ ἔβαλον ζειάς, ἀνὰ δὲ κρῖ λευκὸν ἔμειξαν

     pàr d’ ébalon zeiás, anà dè krî leukòn émeixan

     They threw down spelt, and mixed gray barley with it

   • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 2.36:

     ἀπὸ πυρῶν καὶ κριθέων ὧλλοι ζώουσι, Αἰγυπτίων δὲ τῷ ποιευμένῳ ἀπὸ τούτων τὴν ζόην ὄνειδος μέγιστον ἐστί, ἀλλὰ ἀπὸ ὀλυρέων ποιεῦνται σιτία, τὰς ζειὰς μετεξέτεροι καλέουσι.

     apò purôn kaì krithéōn hôlloi zṓousi, Aiguptíōn dè tōî poieuménōi apò toútōn tḕn zóēn óneidos mégiston estí, allà apò oluréōn poieûntai sitía, tàs zeiàs metexéteroi kaléousi.

     • 1910 translation by George Rawlinson

       [O]thers make barley and wheat their food; it is a disgrace to do so in Egypt, where the grain they live on is spelt, which some call ["zeiā́"].

   • 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Anabasis 5.4.27:

     τὸν δὲ νέον σῖτον ξὺν τῇ καλάμῃ ἀποκείμενον· ἦσαν δὲ ζειαὶ αἱ πλεῖσται.

     tòn dè néon sîton xùn tēî kalámēi apokeímenon; êsan dè zeiaì hai pleîstai.

     • 1890 translation by H. G. Dakyns

       [B]ut the new corn was laid up apart with the straw-stalk and ear together, and this was for the most part spelt.

2. (rare) spelt (Triticum spelta)
   • 371 BCE – 287 BCE, Theophrastus, HP8. 9.2

• ζείδωρος (zeídōros)

• → Latin: zēa
  • → English: zea, ⇒ zein
  • → Italian: zea
  • → Translingual: Zea

• “ζειά”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press