βρέμω

Forms

βρέμω (brémō) ^[1]

Etymology

Beekes takes it as an onomatopoeic word.^[2][1] It resembles Latin fremō (“to roar”), Old High German breman (“to hum, roar”) and Welsh brefu (“to bleat, roar”), which come from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrem-, but Greek has β- where the aspirate should have given φ-.^[2][1][3] Frisk thinks the likeness can hardly be chance and assumes an unaspirated sound-imitating variant *brem-, and Wiktionary mentions the idea that it was borrowed from an Indo-European substrate language in which the aspirate became /b/.^[4][1]

The LIV instead sets up a root *gʷrem- (“to rush, roar”), with βρέμω as its full-grade present and βρόμος (brómos, “roar”) matching Sanskrit ग्राम (grā́ma, “troop, village”), though it marks the root as doubtful.^[5] The DGE also compares μορμύρω (mormúrō, “to roar”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is used, in the active and the middle, for the roar of waves breaking on the beach and of the wind.^[6][7][8]

Semantic evolution

Only the present stem is used.^[9][6] After Homer it spread from the sea and wind to other loud sounds: the clash of arms, the din of an advancing army, the raging of warriors and wild beasts, and in Pindar and Aeschylus the grumbling of a discontented person.^[6][9][7]

Its derivative βρόμος “roar” gave Βρόμιος (Brómios), an epithet of Bacchus for the noise of his rites, and βροντή (brontḗ), thunder.^[9]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for roaring waves and wind.^[6][8]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar and Aeschylus use it for the din of armies, raging warriors and grumbling.^[7][6][3]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it for wave-beaten headlands, and Euripides for clashing arms and a raging madman.^[6][7][3]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Callimachus uses it for the furnaces of Hephaestus.^[7][3]
• 3rd century BC – Apollonius of Rhodes uses it for wild animals and the breath of plough-oxen.^[7][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (of waves, wind, the sea) To roar, thunder; also in the middle.^[6][7]
2. (of arms) To clash, ring.^[6][7]
3. (of an army) To make a thunderous din.^[7][6]
4. (of wild animals, warriors, madmen) To rage, roar, utter threats.^[6][7]
5. To grumble, murmur, clamour.^[7][6]

Word family

• βρόμος (brómos)
• ὑψιβρεμέτης (hupsibremétēs)

Related words

• βροντή (brontḗ)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
4. ^ Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
9. ^ a b c Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck