γραφικός

Forms

γρᾰφῐκός (graphikós) m (feminine γρᾰφῐκή, neuter γρᾰφῐκόν); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

From γραφή (graphḗ, “drawing, writing”) with the suffix -ικός (-ikós), and so ultimately from γράφω (gráphō, “to scratch, draw, write”).^[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first sure uses, in Xenophon and Plato, concern painting: γραφική (with τέχνη understood) is the art of drawing and painting, and a γραφικός man is one skilled in it.^[3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

Plato's Theaetetus asks whether a man speaks as one skilled in painting, and the Gorgias counts painting among the arts that work without words.^[5][6] The word also served for writing: Aristotle's Rhetoric opposes a style suited to written texts to one for debate, Polybius speaks of a scribe's error, and later writers of pens and ink.^[5][4] From the painted image came the sense “as if painted, picturesque” (Diodorus, Plutarch), and Dionysius of Halicarnassus calls a vivid style “graphic”.^[5][4] The Hippocratic treatise On Ancient Medicine compares medicine with γραφική, which LSJ takes as writing and the DGE as painting.^[5][6]

It was borrowed as Latin graphicus “picturesque”, the source of English graphic (1660s).^[7][8] Modern Greek γραφικός (grafikós) is learned: in the sense “of writing or drawing” it continues the ancient word together with French graphique, and in the sense “picturesque” it takes its meaning from Italian pittoresco and French pittoresque.^[9][2]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Xenophon and Plato use it for the art of drawing and painting.^[3][4]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it of a style suited to written texts.^[5][4]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it of a clerical error.^[5]
• 1st century BC – Diodorus calls a view picturesque, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus a style vivid.^[5]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it of figures that look as if painted.^[4][5]
• 1660s – English graphic is first recorded, from Latin.^[8]
• Modern Greek – γραφικός (grafikós) means “of writing or drawing” and “picturesque”.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Skilled in drawing or painting.^[4][5] As a feminine noun, with τέχνη understood, the art of painting.^[4][5][6]
2. Represented in art; looking as if painted; picturesque.^[4][5]
3. Of or for writing: suited to written composition; used for writing (of a pen or ink); made in writing (of an error).^[5][4]
4. Skilled in writing; a shorthand writer.^[5]
5. Able to describe; of style, vivid, graphic; of a subject, suited for description.^[5][4]

Related words

• γραφεύς (grapheús)
• γραφή (graphḗ)
• γραφίς (graphís)
• γράφω (gráphō)
• Latin graphicus
• English graphic

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
3. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki