λῆμμα

Forms

λῆμμᾰ (lêmma) n (genitive λήμμᾰτος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is a noun of result formed from Ancient Greek λαμβάνω (lambánō, “to take”) + -μα (-ma), built on the full grade of the root, as in the future and the aorist passive of the verb.^[2][3][1] Babiniotis explains the double /mm/ as the assimilation of /bm/.^[4] Beekes traces the verb to Proto-Indo-European *sleh₂gʷ- (“to seize”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its earliest record is in Sophocles' Antigone, in the plural, for gains got by any means.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

In Attic it meant what one receives, an income, set against expense, and generally gain or profit, often unjust gain: Demosthenes speaks of a man who cannot resist any chance of profit.^[5][7] The papyri use it as a bookkeeping term for a sum entered to credit.^[5]

Aristotle took it into logic for a statement “taken” as true, an assumption or a premise, and the Stoics for the major premise of a syllogism.^[5][4] Later critics used it for the matter or argument of a speech as against its style, and so for the title of an epigram.^[5] Latin borrowed it as lemma in this sense.^[5][8] The Septuagint used it for a burden laid on someone and above all for a prophet's oracle.^[9][5]

English took lemma in the 1560s as a mathematical term.^[10] Modern Greek λήμμα (límma) means above all the headword of a dictionary article, a sense taken from the English word.^[4][11]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it for gain.^[5][6]
• 5th–4th century BC – Lysias and Plato use it for receipts as against expense.^[5]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it for a premise in logic, and Demosthenes for profit.^[5][4]
• 3rd century BC – Papyri use it for a sum entered to credit.^[5]
• 1st century BC – Dionysius of Halicarnassus uses it for the matter of a speech, as against its style.^[5]
• 1560s – English borrows it as lemma, a term of mathematics.^[10]
• Modern Greek – It means the headword of a dictionary article.^[11][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Anything received; a receipt or income, as against expense.^[5][7]
2. Gain, profit, often unjust gain.^[5][7][12]
3. (logic) A statement taken as true, an assumption; a premise, especially the major premise of a syllogism.^[5][7]
4. The matter or argument of a speech or work, as against its style; the title of an epigram.^[5][7]
5. (Septuagint) A burden laid on someone; a prophetic oracle.^[9][5]

Word family

• πρόλημμα (prólēmma)
• ἀνάλημμα (análēmma)
• ἀντιλημματίζω (antilēmmatízō)
• διάλημμα (diálēmma)
• δίλημμα (dílēmma)
• κατάλημμα (katálēmma)
• παράλημμα (parálēmma)
• προλημματίζω (prolēmmatízō)
• ὑπόλημμα (hupólēmma)

Related words

• διειλημμένως (dieilēmménōs)
• περιειλημμένως (perieilēmménōs)
• λαμβάνω (lambánō)
• Latin lemma
• English lemma

Usage notes

Ammonius distinguishes it from λῆμα (lêma) “spirit, courage”, written with one μ.^[13] Hesychius and Zonaras give it the senses of that word as well as gain, gift and, in Zonaras, prophecy.^[14][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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
3. ^ 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 d e Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
9. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
12. ^ 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
13. ^ [Ammonius], De adfinium vocabulorum differentia, ed. K. Nickau (Leipzig: Teubner, 1966)
14. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
15. ^ Pseudo-Zonaras, Lexicon, ed. Johann August Heinrich Tittmann (1808), Iohannis Zonarae Lexicon, Leipzig: Crusius