γράμμα

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /ɡrám.ma/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈɣram.ma/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈɣram.ma/^[1]

Forms

γρᾰ́μμᾰ (grámma) n (genitive γρᾰ́μμᾰτος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is derived from γράφω (gráphō, “to scratch, write”), with the suffix of result nouns -μα (-ma).^[1][2][3] Dialect forms show the suffix more clearly: Argive ⟨γράσσμα⟩ from ⟨*γράφ-σ-μα⟩, and Doric ⟨γράθμα⟩.^[3][4]

Γράφω is from the zero grade of Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- (“to scratch, carve”), which is also the source of Old English ceorfan (“to cut, carve”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest examples are inscriptions from Argos of the 6th and 5th centuries BC, in the dialect forms γράσσμα and γράθμα.^[3][4] In literature Aeschylus speaks of “combinations of letters”, that is, writing, and Herodotus notes that certain names all end in the same letter.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was something drawn or inscribed: Euripides and Plato use it for a drawing or picture.^[2][4] Its main sense was a letter of the alphabet, and in the plural the alphabet, reading and writing (“to learn grammata” was to learn to read) and any written text: a letter, an inscription, a document, the laws, the public records, a literary work.^[2][4] Ammonius distinguishes it from στοιχεῖον (stoikheîon): the stoikheion is the sound, the gramma its written sign.^[6]

In the New Testament grammata are the Scriptures and learning, and Paul sets the written letter of the law against the spirit.^[7] Medieval vernacular Greek used it for a letter of the alphabet, a signature, an epistle and the Bible.^[8] It was borrowed into Slavic, as in Russian грамота (gramota) “charter, literacy”, and Baltic and Finnic took it over from Slavic.^[1] Modern Greek γράμμα (grámma) is a letter of the alphabet and a letter sent by post.^[9]

Timeline

• 6th century BC – An inscription from Argos has the form γράσσμα.^[3]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it for written characters.^[4][2]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for a letter of the alphabet and for a written message.^[4][2]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it for a picture and for the letters taught at school.^[4][2]
• 1st century AD – Paul contrasts the letter and the spirit.^[7]
• 12th–17th century – Vernacular Greek uses it for a letter, a signature and the Bible.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Something drawn; a drawing or picture.^[4][2]
2. A written character, a letter of the alphabet.^[4][2]
3. (plural) Letters, reading and writing, literacy.^[2][4]
4. (plural) A piece of writing: a text, a letter, a written message.^[2][7]
5. An inscription.^[2]
6. (plural) Documents, public records, written laws.^[2]
7. A clause in a treaty or law.^[2]
8. A literary work, or (plural) writings.^[2][6]
9. (New Testament) The letter of the law, or (plural) the Scriptures and learning.^[7]
10. A small weight, a scruple, one twenty-fourth of an ounce.^[1]

Word family

• γραμματείδιον (grammateídion)
• γραμματεύς (grammateús)
• γραμματικός (grammatikós)
• γραμματιστής (grammatistḗs)

Related words

• γράφω (gráphō)
• γραμμή (grammḗ)
• English gram

Usage notes

Wiktionary treats the weight called γράμμα as a separate word, either a translation of Latin scrīptulum, a variant of scrūpulum, or a borrowing of a Semitic word for a fruit stone.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
4. ^ 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
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b [Ammonius], De adfinium vocabulorum differentia, ed. K. Nickau (Leipzig: Teubner, 1966)
7. ^ a b c d Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
8. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
9. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki