δραχμή

Forms

δρᾰχμή (drakhmḗ) f (genitive δρᾰχμῆς); first declension^[1] Arcadian and Elean δαρχμά (darkhmá), Cretan δαρκμά (darkmá) (Knossos) and δαρκνά (darkná) (Gortyn); late δραγμή (dragmḗ).^[2][3] The DGE reads Mycenaean Greek do-ka-ma-i on the Mycenaean tablets as this word, with a query.^[2]

Etymology

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek: beside Attic-Ionic δραχμή the dialects have δαρχμά (darkhmá) (Arcadian, Elean, Knossos) and Cretan δαρκνά (darkná) (Gortyn), and he doubts that the two stems can both be zero grades of one Indo-European root.^[3][2][1]

The usual explanation, which Frisk and the DGE follow, makes it a verbal noun in -μή (-mḗ) from the root of δράσσομαι (drássomai, “to grasp, seize”), so properly “a grasp of the hand, a handful”, formed like σπιθαμή (spithamḗ) and πυγμή (pugmḗ);^[4][2][1] for Frisk the two stems are two forms of the zero grade.^[4] Plutarch already explained the name as the amount one can hold in one's hand,^[5] and finds of iron spits at the Argive Heraeum and Sparta suggest that six spits, each worth an obol, made a “handful”.^[6]

The word spread east and west with the coin: it was borrowed as Latin drachma,^[7][1] and Wiktionary lists borrowings in Old Armenian դրաքմայ (drakʻmay) and Sanskrit द्रम्म (drámma).^[1] It passed into Coptic ⲇⲣⲁⲭⲙⲏ (drakhmē).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first use as a coin name in literature is in Herodotus, of a silver coin worth six obols.^[5][9][10] Elean and Arcadian inscriptions of the 6th–5th century BC already have the form δαρχμά, and 4th-century BC inscriptions from Thespiae use it for a handful of spits, the sense the DGE puts first.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In classical Greek it named both a weight and the silver coin of six obols; a hundred drachmas made a mina.^{[5][9][6][11]} The coin was struck on several standards, and the Attic one, about 4.37 grams, became the usual one from the late Classical period.^[6] In comedy the first syllable is sometimes long.^[5]

The Septuagint and the New Testament use it for the coin: in Luke a woman sweeps the house for one lost drachma.^[12][13] Hesychius defines it as a weight, an eighth of an ounce.^[14] The word was kept in medieval Greek,^[15] and the diminutive δραχμίον (drakhmíon) became Modern Greek δράμι (drámi).^[4] δραχμή (drachmí) itself was revived as a learned word for the currency of modern Greece and, in pharmacy, for a weight of 3.75 grams.^[16][17]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – Elean and Arcadian inscriptions have the form δαρχμά (darkhmá).^[2]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for the silver coin worth six obols.^[5][9]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus uses it for a weight, the drachm.^[5]
• 1st century AD – Luke's parable tells of a woman who loses one drachma.^[12]
• 5th century AD (probably) – Hesychius glosses it as an eighth of an ounce.^[14]
• Modern Greek – The learned δραχμή (drachmí) names the national currency.^[16][18]

Meanings

Noun

1. A handful, of spits (Boeotian inscriptions).^[2]
2. A drachma, a silver coin worth six obols (obolós).^[5][9][12]
3. A weight, the drachm.^[5][1]

Word family

• δραχμιαῖος (drakhmiaîos)
• δραχμίον (drakhmíon)
• δίδραχμον (dídrakhmon)

Related words

• δράσσομαι (drássomai)
• Latin drachma

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2002–2010), Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
8. ^ Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
9. ^ a b c d Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
10. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
11. ^ Zalizniak, Anna A., et al. (2024), Database of Semantic Shifts (DatSemShift), Moscow: Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences, https://datsemshift.ru
12. ^ a b c 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
13. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
14. ^ a b Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
15. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
16. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
17. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
18. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας