κόμμα

Forms

κόμμᾰ (kómma) n (genitive κόμμᾰτος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek κόπτω (kóptō, “to strike, cut”) with the suffix -μα (-ma), which forms nouns of result,^[1][2][3] the /p/ of the stem being assimilated to the following /m/.^[4] The first sense was the result of striking: the impression struck on a coin.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record is on Thracian coins of the 5th century BC, which read Σεύθα κόμμα, “coinage of Seuthes”.^[2] In Aristophanes it is the stamp or issue of coins, and figuratively the stamp of a person: the Frogs compares bad politicians to base copper coins of the worst stamp.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Comedy used the coin image freely: “of bad stamp” was proverbial for a bad character, and the Frogs calls Euripides' private gods “a new coinage”.^[2][3] Dio Cassius uses the phrase “those who handle the coinage” for the Roman moneyers.^[2]

From “what is struck off” came “a piece cut off” and, in Dinarchus, the chaff of threshing.^[2] The rhetoricians made it a term for a short clause, shorter than a κῶλον (kôlon), as Demetrius defines it, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Hermogenes use it so.^[2][4] It was borrowed as Latin comma, used by Cicero and Quintilian for the short clause.^[5][2] Hesychius records “new coinage” said of new citizens, and in Greek of the Hellenistic period and later it could mean a political faction.^[4]

Medieval vernacular Greek kept the word, with a form κόμμαν (kómman) that still lives in Pontic and Cypriot.^[6] Modern Greek κόμμα (kómma) has two learned senses: the punctuation mark, the comma, modelled on French virgule, and the political party, modelled on French parti.^[7] English took the word first as a Latin word in the 1520s and naturalized it by the 1590s, with the shift from the clause to the mark that ends it.^[8]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Thracian coins bear the words Σεύθα κόμμα.^[2]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it for the stamp and issue of coins, and figuratively of people.^[2][3]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Dinarchus uses it for chaff.^[2]
• 1st century BC – Cicero uses the Latin comma for a short clause, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus uses the Greek word in the same sense.^[2][5]
• 2nd–3rd century AD – Dio Cassius uses it of the Roman coinage.^[2]
• 1520s – English takes comma as a Latin word.^[8]
• Modern Greek – It means the punctuation mark and the political party.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The stamp or impression on a coin.^[2][3]
2. coinage, an issue of coins; figuratively, a new invention.^[2][3]
3. (figurative) Stamp, character of a person.^[3][2]
4. A piece cut off.^[2]
5. chaff from threshing.^[2]
6. (rhetoric) A short clause, shorter than a κῶλον (kôlon).^[2]
7. A contusion.^[2]

Word family

• κομμάτιον (kommátion)

Related words

• κόπτω (kóptō)
• κόπος (kópos)
• Latin comma
• English comma

Usage notes

The proverbial phrase πονηροῦ κόμματος, “of bad stamp”, is said of a worthless person in Aristophanes' Wealth.^[2]

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 r s t u Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ a b c d Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
5. ^ a b Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
7. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com