γλαύκωμα

Forms

γλαύκωμᾰ (glaúkōma) n (genitive γλαυκώμᾰτος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek γλαυκόω (glaukóō, “to colour blue-grey, (passive) to have glaucoma”) + -μα (-ma), the suffix of nouns of result.^[1][2][3] The verb is from γλαυκός (glaukós, “gleaming, blue-grey”),^[4][5] an adjective without an etymology, which Beekes considers rather Pre-Greek because a form Proto-Indo-European *gleh₂u-ko- would be unusual.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Aristotle's Generation of Animals has it for an opacity of the eye that turns it blue-grey.^[3][6][2] The Hippocratic writers already used the passive verb for eyes affected in this way.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In ancient medicine it was the cataract, an opacity of the lens,^[3][6] and Rufus, followed by Galen and Paul of Aegina, kept the name for the forms thought incurable, as opposed to ὑπόχυμα (hupókhuma).^[3][6] It was borrowed as Latin glaucoma, already in a comedy of Plautus and in Pliny, and a Christian Latin poet used it of mental blindness.^[7][6]

In Modern Greek, γλαύκωμα (gláfkoma) is a learned word.^[8] It now names a different disease, a rise in pressure inside the eye that harms sight, a sense the Χρηστικό Λεξικό connects with French glaucome and the English word glaucoma.^[8][9]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – The Hippocratic writers use the verb γλαυκόομαι (glaukóomai) of eyes affected with it.^[3][4]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it for an eye that has turned blue-grey and dim.^[3][6]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – Plautus uses the Latin glaucoma in a comedy.^[6]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Rufus restricts it to incurable cataracts.^[3][6]
• Modern Greek – The learned γλαύκωμα (gláfkoma) names the disease of raised pressure in the eye.^[8][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (medicine) An opacity of the lens of the eye, a cataract; especially one thought incurable.^[3][6]

Related words

• γλαυκός (glaukós)
• γλαυκόω (glaukóō)
• Latin glaucoma

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c 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
5. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
7. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
8. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ a b Ακαδημία Αθηνών (2014), Χρηστικό Λεξικό της Νεοελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Academy of Athens