Etymologically
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μέριμνα

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /mé.rim.na/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈme.rim.na/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈme.rim.na/[1]

Forms

μέριμνᾰ (mérimna) f (genitive μερίμνης); first declension[1]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.[2] Wiktionary takes it as inherited from Proto-Hellenic *mérimnā, probably from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mer- (“to remember”), comparing Latin memor (“mindful”) and Old English ġemimor (“mindful”).[1] Beekes and Chantraine connect it with the verb seen in Sanskrit and Avestan maraiti (“remembers”).[2][3] The formation is unclear: a stem in -μων (-mōn) or -μα (-ma) with a support vowel ι, as in μέδιμνος (médimnos), seems to be the base; the common view that the noun was made from μεριμνάω (merimnáō) is not supported by the dates of the words.[2][3] μέρμερος (mérmeros) and μερμηρίζω (mermērízō) may belong to the same root.[2][1]

Furnée took it as Pre-Greek because of its suffix, an alternative Beekes reports.[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Hesiod's Works and Days speaks of the cares (plural) of the men of the iron age; the Homeric Hymn to Hermes has thick-coming cares that haunt a man.[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

It was mainly a poetic word: Hesiod, Sappho, Empedocles, Pindar, tragedy and comedy use it for care, anxiety and anxious thought, and it is rare in prose before late Greek.[2][3][4] Its senses run from worry about someone to thought in general, an idea (Empedocles), and an aim or ambition (Pindar, Bacchylides).[7] Chantraine notes that it was used disparagingly of philosophical speculation: Aristophanes' Clouds calls Socrates' pupils “ponder-thinkers”, μεριμνοφροντιστής (merimnophrontistḗs).[3]

In the New Testament it means worry about the things of life: “cast all your anxiety on him” (1 Peter), and anxiety about all the churches.[8] The learned word Modern Greek μέριμνα (mérimna) means care for someone or something, as in κοινωνική μέριμνα, social welfare.[9]

Timeline

  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Works and Days uses the plural for cares.[5][6][10]
  • 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it for aims and ambitions,[7] and Aeschylus for care for someone.[7][5][10]
  • 5th century BC – Empedocles uses it for a thought or idea.[7][10]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes coins μεριμνοφροντισταί for Socrates' pupils.[3][10]
  • 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for worry and anxious care.[8]
  • Modern Greek – Learned Modern Greek μέριμνα (mérimna) means care, provision.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Care, concern, anxiety; anxious thought (often plural).[5][7]
  2. Care for someone or something.[5][7]
  3. Thought in general; an idea.[7]
  4. An object of concern; a trouble.[7]
  5. An aim, design, ambition.[7]
  6. (New Testament) Worry, anxiety about the things of life.[8][11]

Word family

  • ἀμέριμνος (amérimnos)
  • μεριμνάω (merimnáō)
  • μεριμνήματα (merimnḗmata)
  • μεριμνητής (merimnētḗs)
  • μεριμνοφροντιστής (merimnophrontistḗs)
  • μέρμερος (mérmeros)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ a b c d e 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 Scarborough, Matthew (2025), PHILOGLOSSA: database of Pre-Greek and other non-Indo-European words in Ancient Greek, version 1.0
  5. ^ a b c d e 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 f g h i j Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  8. ^ a b c 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
  9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  10. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  11. ^ United Bible Societies (2023), UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (revised Louw–Nida semantic domains), open-licence ed.