κλίμα

Forms

κλῐ́μᾰ (klíma) n (genitive κλῐ́μᾰτος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek κλίνω (klī́nō, “to slope, incline”) + -μα (-ma), a noun of result from the verb's stem, so first “an inclination, a slope”.^[1][2][3] The verb belongs to the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- (“to lean, incline”).^[4][5] LSJ marks the ⟨ι⟩ short,^[2] while the CGL allows that it may have been long,^[6] and Babiniotis thinks a short vowel more likely.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word appears in the 4th century BC in the treatise On the Cosmos ascribed to Aristotle, where the northern pole is said to stand above our heads “in the northern region” (κατὰ τὸ βόρειον κλίμα): the “slope” is the supposed inclination of the earth from the equator towards the poles.^[2][3][7]

Semantic evolution

In Hellenistic prose the word kept its literal sense, the slope of a hill or mountain range, or the side towards which a city faces, both in Polybius.^[6][2] Astronomers and geographers used it for the inclination of the heavens, and hence for a band of the earth at a given latitude: from Eratosthenes on, the inhabited world was divided into seven such zones, distinguished by the length of their longest day, and astrologers took over the same seven zones.^[2] Since a zone is a stretch of land, the word came to mean simply a region or district, as in the New Testament, which speaks of “the regions of Syria and Cilicia” in Galatians.^[8][3] It also meant a cardinal point, and figuratively a propensity, in Epictetus.^[2]

Medieval vernacular Greek used it for a bending of the body and for a region of the earth.^[9] Latin borrowed it as clima.^[10] The modern meaning, the weather conditions of a place, is a semantic loan from French climat, itself from Latin and ultimately from the Greek word; in this sense Modern Greek κλίμα (klíma) is a learned word, and it also means the general mood or atmosphere of a situation.^[11][12] The Greek scholars of the 18th century still defined it as the land between two parallels of latitude, and spoke of a “natural” climate when they meant the weather of a place.^[13]

Timeline

• 4th century BC – The treatise On the Cosmos ascribed to Aristotle uses it of the northern region of the sky.^[2][7][14]
• 3rd century BC – Papyri use the word, which BDAG lists among its early records.^[8]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it for the slope of a mountain range, the orientation of a city and a region;^[2][6] Hipparchus uses it for the inclination of the heavens.^[2][6][14]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for the regions of Syria and Cilicia and of Achaia.^[8]
• 2nd century AD – Arrian's Epictetus uses it figuratively for a propensity of mind.^[2][14]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular texts use it for a bending of the neck and for the regions of the earth.^[9]
• Modern Greek – The learned word κλίμα (klíma) means “climate”, a sense taken from French.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. An inclination, a slope of ground; in siege-craft, a scarp.^[2][6]
2. The orientation of a place, the side towards which it faces.^[6][2]
3. (astronomy) The supposed inclination of the earth or of the heavens from the equator towards the poles.^[2][3]
4. (geography) A latitude, a zone of the earth; one of the seven latitudinal bands of the inhabited world, distinguished by the length of the longest day.^[2][6]
5. A region or district.^[6][8]
6. A cardinal point.^[2]
7. (figurative) A propensity, a leaning of the mind.^[2]
8. (grammar) An inflected form.^[2]

Word family

• κλιματάρχης (klimatárkhēs)
• κλιματίας (klimatías)
• κλιματικός (klimatikós)

Related words

• κλίνω (klī́nō)
• ἔγκλιμα (énklima)
• Latin clima

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
4. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, online ed., https://www.koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ a b c d 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
9. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
10. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
12. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
13. ^ Κάτοπτρον: Ιστορικό λεξικό επιστημονικών όρων (Greek scientific terms 1700–1821)
14. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge