κωμῳδικός

Forms

κωμῳδικός (kōmōidikós), feminine κωμῳδική, neuter κωμῳδικόν; adverb κωμῳδικῶς.^[1][2] Also κωμῳδιακός, with the same meaning.^[3]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek κωμῳδία (kōmōidía), “comedy”, with the adjective suffix -ικός (-ikós).^[4] Bailly and Πάπυρος name κωμῳδός (kōmōidós), “comic actor or poet”, as its base instead.^[5][3] Both contain κῶμος (kômos), the revel from which comedy took its name.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first occurs in Aristophanes, whose Wasps speaks of “comic” verses and Ecclesiazusae of a “comic” chamber pot, an object fit for the comic stage.^[1][2][6]

Semantic evolution

In classical Attic the word belongs to the theatre: Aristophanes uses it of verses, props and stage business, and the neuter plural as a noun for comic material.^[2][1] Plato in the Republic speaks of comic imitation.^[1][2] After the classical period it is rare: Lucian and Aelius Aristides use it in the 2nd century AD, and Athenaeus has the adverb κωμῳδικῶς, “in the manner of comedy”.^[6][1] Πάπυρος records κωμῳδικός for the ancient language only.^[3]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it of comic verses, a chamber pot and a stage mask.^[1][2][7]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato speaks of comic imitation in the Republic.^[1][2][7]
• 2nd century AD – Lucian and Aelius Aristides use the adjective.^[6][7]
• 2nd–3rd century AD – Athenaeus uses the adverb κωμῳδικῶς.^[1][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or belonging to comedy, comic.^[1][2]
2. Fit for the comic stage, laughable (of a prop, behaviour or performance).^[2][1]
3. (neuter plural as noun) Comic material.^[2]

Related words

• κωμῳδία (kōmōidía)
• κωμῳδός (kōmōidós)
• κῶμος (kômos)
• κωμικός (kōmikós)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
4. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1889), An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
6. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge