εἴρων

Forms

εἴρων (eírōn) m (genitive εἴρωνος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It belongs to the class of nouns in -ων (-ōn) that characterise a person by a trait, often as a nickname, but the base is unknown and there is no satisfactory etymology.^[2][3] Solmsen connected it with εἴρω (eírō, “to say”), as “one who only says something without meaning it”;^[2][3] Prellwitz took the original sense to be “one who asks”, from εἴρομαι (eíromai, “to ask”).^[2][3][1] Chantraine objects that the verb for asking is Ionic in form, while Attic has only ἐρέσθαι (erésthai).^[3]

The lexicographer Zonaras derived it from the verb for saying: one who deceives by words, who thinks one thing and says another.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first instance is in Aristophanes' Clouds, in a string of insults for a slippery talker.^[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

In Aristotle's ethics the εἴρων is the man who understates the truth about himself, the opposite of the boaster, ἀλαζών (alazṓn), and of the truthful man;^[5] Theophrastus opens his Characters with him.^[5][2][8] The comic poet Philemon calls the fox a dissembler by nature.^[8][5] Later writers used it of hypocrites and of people evasive in argument, and Ignatius of Antioch of false teachers.^[8][5] Hesychius glosses it as one who thinks one thing and says another.^[9]

Its derivative εἰρωνεία (eirōneía), dissimulation, feigned ignorance, is the source of the word for irony.^[2] Modern Greek has the learned είρωνας (íronas) for a person who is ironic or mocking.^[10]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it as an insult in the Clouds.^[5][6][8]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle opposes the εἴρων to the boaster and the truthful man.^[5][8]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus describes the type in his Characters.^[5][2][8]
• 1st century BC – Philodemus treats the εἴρων as a kind of boaster.^[5][8]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Ignatius of Antioch uses it of deceitful people.^[8]
• Modern Greek – Modern Greek είρωνας (íronas) is an ironic or mocking person.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dissembler, one who says less than he thinks; one who feigns ignorance or innocence, or is mock-modest.^[5][6]
2. A hypocrite, a deceiver.^[8][9]

Word family

• εἰρωνεία (eirōneía)
• εἰρωνεύομαι (eirōneúomai)
• εἰρωνικός (eirōnikós)
• εἰρωνευτής (eirōneutḗs)

Related words

• English irony

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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
3. ^ a b c d Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
4. ^ Pseudo-Zonaras, Lexicon, ed. Johann August Heinrich Tittmann (1808), Iohannis Zonarae Lexicon, Leipzig: Crusius
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
9. ^ a b Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki