κλῖμαξ

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /klîː.maks/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈkli.maks/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈkli.maks/^[1]

Forms

κλῖμᾰξ (klîmax) f (genitive κλῑ́μᾰκος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is derived from κλίνω (klī́nō, “to lean”), since a ladder leans aslant.^[2][3][1] The ῑ is taken over from κλίνω in place of the expected ει of an older *κλεῖ-μα.^[3] κλίνω continues Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- (“to lean”), the root of Latin clīnāre and Old English hlinian (“to lean”).^[3]

From it came κλιμακτήρ “rung of a ladder”, and later “critical point in a man's life”, the source of English climacteric.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Odyssey it is the stair by which one goes down from the upper rooms of a house.^[4][2][5]

Semantic evolution

Archilochus and the tragedians use it for a ladder, and above all the scaling-ladder of a siege.^[5][2] Thucydides describes ladders set against a city wall.^[5][2] Euripides uses it for a ship's gangway and, figuratively, for a ladder up to prosperity.^[5][2] In Aristophanes it is the rack on which slaves were bound for torture, in Hippocrates a ladder for setting dislocations, and in Sophocles a wrestling hold.^[2][5]

The rhetoricians (Demetrius, Longinus) gave it the sense of a figure that rises step by step, which Latin took over as clīmax, the source of English climax.^[2][1] The learned Modern Greek κλίμακα (klímaka) means “ladder, scale”.^[1][6]

Timeline

• Homer – the Odyssey uses it for the staircase of a house.^[4][5]
• 7th century BC – Archilochus uses it for a ladder.^[5][7]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides describes scaling-ladders, and Sophocles uses it for a wrestling hold.^[2][5][7]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it for the rack used in torture.^[2][5][7]
• Hellenistic and Roman period – the rhetoricians use it for the figure of gradation.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ladder, especially a scaling-ladder; a ship's gangway.^[2][5]
2. A staircase.^[2][5]
3. A ladder-shaped frame on which people were tied for torture.^[2][5]
4. (medicine) A ladder used to reduce dislocations.^[2]
5. (wrestling) A hold in which the opponent is gripped from behind.^[5][2]
6. (rhetoric) climax, gradation.^[2][8]
7. (plural) The handrails of a bridge.^[2]

Word family

• κλιμακτήρ (klīmaktḗr)
• κλιμάκιον (klimákion)
• κλιμακίζω (klimakízō)
• κλιμακωτός (klimakōtós)

Related words

• κλίνω (klī́nō)
• κλίμα (klíma)
• Latin clīmax
• English climax
• English climacteric

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 r Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d 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 Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
7. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
8. ^ Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.