εἰρωνικός

Forms

εἰρωνικός (eirōnikós) m (feminine εἰρωνῐκή, neuter εἰρωνῐκόν); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek εἴρων (eírōn, “one who feigns ignorance”) + -ικός (-ikós).^[1][2]

The base εἴρων (eírōn), a person who pretends not to know what he knows, is a noun in -ων (-ōn) from a stem of unknown origin, according to Beekes.^[3] Solmsen connected it with εἴρω (eírō, “to say”), as one who only says something without meaning it, and Prellwitz with εἴρομαι (eíromai, “to ask”), as one who asks.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the adverb in Aristophanes' Wasps, where a character remarks on a cunning pretext: “οἵαν πρόφασιν καθῆκεν, ὡς εἰρωνικῶς” (“what an excuse he has slipped in, and how slyly!”).^[4][5][6]

Semantic evolution

In Plato the adjective describes dissembling: the sophist is the “dissembling imitator”, and the Laws speaks of a dissembling kind of impiety, so that the word comes close to “hollow, insincere”.^[4][7][5] The adverb in the Symposium, of Socrates, already points towards irony, saying something very slyly.^[5][4]

Later Greek used it for what is ironic or mocking: Dio Chrysostom has a man laugh very ironically, Philostratus says that Dio's philosophical manner was not ironic, and Heliodorus writes of an ironic smile and of mocking nods.^[5][4] In rhetoric τὸ εἰρωνικόν could be a feigned modesty, judged a mark of grandeur.^[5] Modern Greek ειρωνικός (eironikós) is a learned word, whose meaning “ironic” followed the change in the sense of ειρωνεία (eironeía).^[8]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Aristophanes uses the adverb of a sly pretext.^[4][5]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it of the dissembling sophist and of Socrates speaking slyly.^[4][7][5]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Dio Chrysostom uses the adverb of ironic laughter.^[5]
• 3rd century AD – Heliodorus uses it of an ironic smile and mocking nods.^[5][4]
• Modern Greek – The learned ειρωνικός (eironikós) means “ironic”.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Dissembling, feigning ignorance; hence insincere, hollow.^[4][7][1]
2. Ironic, mocking.^[5][9]
3. (rhetoric) In the neuter as a noun: feigned modesty.^[5]
4. The adverb εἰρωνικῶς: slyly, disingenuously; ironically, mockingly.^[4][5]

Related words

• εἴρων (eírōn)
• εἰρωνεία (eirōneíā)
• εἰρωνεύομαι (eirōneúomai)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1889), An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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 d e f g h i Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
6. ^ Woordenboek Grieks/Nederlands (2012–), Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, https://woordenboekgrieks.nl
7. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli