Etymologically
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λύρα

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /lý.raː/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈly.ra/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈly.ra/[1]

Forms

λῠ́ρᾱ (lúrā) f (genitive λῠ́ρᾱς); first declension[1] Ionic λύρη (lúrē).[2][3]

Etymology

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek, from Pre-Greek, a technical loan from the Mediterranean area like κιθάρα (kithára), and rejects the Indo-European etymologies.[4][1] Chantraine calls its origin unknown, perhaps a borrowing.[3] The Byzantine etymologica derived it from λύω (lúō, “to loosen, release”), because Hermes gave the lyre to Apollo as a ransom for the cattle he had stolen.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It does not occur in the Iliad or the Odyssey; the first texts are the Margites and the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, where the instrument is made from the shell of a tortoise.[6][3][7]

Semantic evolution

The lyre had four, later seven strings.[4][3] The word first named either a bowl lyre or a box lyre, but later specifically the bowl lyre, as against the κιθάρα (kithára).[2] Plato uses it for lyric poetry and music in education;[6] from Anacreon on it is also the constellation Lyra;[6] Aristotle uses it for a sea fish named for the sound it makes, perhaps Trigla lyra, a gurnard.[6][3]

It was borrowed as Latin lyra, from which come Old High German līra (German Leier) and, through Old French, English lyre, attested from about 1200.[4][8][9] Modern Greek λύρα (líra) is, as a learned word, the ancient instrument; as a popular word it is the three-stringed bowed lyra of Crete and Pontus, a change of sense perhaps through an earlier instrument to which a bow was added; and it is also the military glockenspiel.[10]

Timeline

  • 7th–6th century BC – The Margites and the Homeric Hymn to Hermes use it, the hymn of a lyre made from a tortoise shell.[7][6][3]
  • 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it often.[6][7]
  • 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it for a fish.[6][3]
  • 4th–3rd century BC – Aratus uses it for the constellation Lyra.[6]
  • About 1200 – English lyre is recorded.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A lyre, a stringed instrument with a sound box of tortoise shell.[6][2]
  2. Lyric poetry and music.[6]
  3. The constellation Lyra.[6]
  4. A sea fish, perhaps a gurnard, Trigla lyra.[6][3]

Word family

  • λυρικός (lurikós)
  • λύριον (lúrion)
  • λυροποιός (luropoiós)
  • λυρῳδός (lurōidós)
  • λυρίζω (lurízō)
  • λυριστής (luristḗs)

Usage notes

LSJ records the proverb ὄνος λύρας, “an ass (listening) to the lyre”.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
  4. ^ a b c 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
  5. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  8. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  10. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki