to put something around or onto another thing, so that it wraps, covers, or sits in place on it.
The picture behind this verb is a single simple one: something is set around something else. The front half of the word carries the idea of "around" and the back half simply means "to place," and every use in the New Testament follows from that. It is almost always one person doing it to another or to an object, not to themselves.
What changes from verse to verse is not the action but what is being placed, and English has to change words to follow:
- A robe or a woven crown goes onto a person, and English says they put it on him (Matthew 27:28, Mark 15:17).
- A fence goes around a newly planted vineyard, and English says the owner set a hedge around it (Matthew 21:33, Mark 12:1).
- A sponge soaked in sour wine goes onto the end of a reed or a hyssop stalk, and English says they put it on the stick (Matthew 27:48, John 19:29).
Paul stretches the same picture once, in 1 Corinthians 12:23, and it is worth slowing down for. He says the parts of the body we consider less honorable are exactly the ones we clothe with greater honor. Honor is not handed over like a prize; it is arranged over the part, the way clothing is draped over what we want treated with care. The image only works because the verb is a covering word.
The word itself carries no judgment about the act. It does not mean to honor and it does not mean to mock. The soldiers use it twice in the space of a few verses while dressing Jesus in a purple robe and a crown of thorns, which is a coronation in its form and cruelty in its intent, and the verb reports only the placing.