θέρμη

Forms

θέρμη (thérmē) f (genitive θέρμης); first declension^[1] Also θέρμα (thérma), in Plato and Menander.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek θερμός (thermós, “warm, hot”).^[4][5] Babiniotis explains it as the feminine θερμή (thermḗ) of the adjective, used as a noun with the accent drawn back.^[6] NIL reconstructs the noun as Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰer-mah₂-, beside the adjective *gʷʰer-mo-, both from the root *gʷʰer- (“to get warm”), which also gives θέρομαι (théromai, “to become warm”) and θέρος (théros, “summer”).^[7][8] Beekes notes that the meaning “summer” of that noun is a Greek innovation, since Greek expresses “heat” with θέρμη.^[8]

The adjective is cognate with Old Armenian ջերմ (ǰerm, “warm, hot”), and with Sanskrit घर्म (gharmá, “heat”) and Latin formus (“warm”), which have the o-grade.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in the late 5th century BC, in the Hippocratic writings and in Thucydides' account of the plague, for the heat of the body and for fever.^[3][9][6] A fragment of Pherecrates has a woman ask someone to feel her forehead to see whether she has a fever.^[10][3]

Semantic evolution

Plato and Aristotle also use it for feverish heat, sometimes in the form θέρμα.^[3][2] Zonaras quotes Pherecrates and Menander to refute those who said that θέρμα was the fever and Θέρμη the city.^[10] In the Septuagint it is the heat of the sun or of a smith's furnace, and in Acts a viper comes out of the fire because of the heat.^[11][4]

The plural came to mean hot springs, first of a particular place in Xenophon, and in the Hellenistic period hot springs and hot baths in general.^[2][6][3] It is also the name of a town in Sicily.^[3]

The word lived on in medieval vernacular Greek.^[12] Modern Greek has two words: a learned θέρμη (thérmi) meaning “fervour, zeal”, and a popular one meaning “fever”, whose plural denotes recurrent fevers, especially malaria.^[13]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – The Hippocratic writings and Thucydides use it for bodily heat and fever.^[3][9][14]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it for feverish heat, and Xenophon uses the plural for hot springs.^[3][2][14]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius names the Sicilian town Θέρμαι.^[3][14]
• 1st century AD – Acts uses it for the heat of a fire.^[4][3]
• 2nd century AD – Papyri use the plural for hot baths.^[3]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular texts keep the word.^[12]
• Modern Greek – θέρμη (thérmi) means fervour in learned use and fever in popular use.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. Heat, of a fire or of the sun.^[3][2][11]
2. Feverish heat, fever.^[3][2]
3. (plural) Hot springs.^[3][2]
4. (plural, Koine) Hot baths.^[3][6]

Related words

• θερμός (thermós)
• θέρομαι (théromai)
• θέρος (théros)
• θερμότης (thermótēs)
• Latin formus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, online ed., https://www.koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
7. ^ a b Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
10. ^ a b Pseudo-Zonaras, Lexicon, ed. Johann August Heinrich Tittmann (1808), Iohannis Zonarae Lexicon, Leipzig: Crusius
11. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
12. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
13. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
14. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge