Etymologically
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μίασμα

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /mí.az.ma/[1]
  • IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈmi.az.ma/[1]
  • IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈmi.az.ma/[1]

Forms

μῐ́ασμᾰ (míasma) n (genitive μῐάσμᾰτος); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is derived from μιαίνω (miaínō, “to stain, defile”) with the suffix -μα.[2][1][3] μιαίνω has no clear cognates: the alternation r/n in μιαίνω and μιαρός (miarós) looks Indo-European, and Beekes mentions a root Proto-Indo-European *smey- (“to smear”), but he concludes that without an etymology the verb is rather Pre-Greek.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Aeschylus uses it often for the stain of bloodshed and the taint of guilt.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

In tragedy and in the orators it is the ritual pollution incurred by shedding blood, breaking religious taboos or contact with birth and death, which could infect individuals, households and cities.[5][2] It could also be the polluted person: Aeschylus calls Clytemnestra a “parricidal pollution”, and in Sophocles' Oedipus the King the city must drive out the pollution of the land.[2][5] Antiphon and Plato's Laws also use it.[2][5]

The Hippocratic writers used it more generally of air tainted with disease-bearing pollutions.[2][6] The Septuagint and the New Testament use it for defilement and for a shameful deed, as in “the defilements of the world” in 2 Peter.[7][3] Plutarch uses it for a blemish.[5]

Modern Greek μίασμα (míazma) means something morally or ideologically polluting, and a disease-bearing agent.[8][6] English miasma (1660s) came through Modern Latin for noxious vapours believed to cause disease.[9]

Timeline

  • 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it for the pollution of bloodshed.[2][5][10]
  • 5th century BC – Sophocles speaks of driving the pollution from the land.[2][10]
  • 5th century BC – the Hippocratic writers use it of polluted air.[2][10]
  • 1st century AD – 2 Peter speaks of the defilements of the world.[3]
  • 1660s – English miasma.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A stain, defilement, ritual pollution, especially from bloodshed; the taint of guilt.[2][5]
  2. A source of pollution: a polluted person.[2][5]
  3. (medicine) A disease-bearing pollution of the air.[2][6]
  4. (Septuagint, New Testament) A shameful deed, crime.[3][7]
  5. A blemish.[5]

Word family

  • μιαρός (miarós)
  • μιαίνω (miaínō)
  • English miasma

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 Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d 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
  4. ^ 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. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  6. ^ a b c Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
  7. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
  8. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  10. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge