μαλακία

Forms

μᾰλᾰκῐ́ᾱ (malakíā) f (genitive μᾰλᾰκῐ́ᾱς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek μαλακός (malakós, “soft”) + -ία (-íā, “abstract noun suffix”).^[1][2][3] The adjective comes from Proto-Hellenic *məlakos, from Proto-Indo-European *ml̥h₂ekos, a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *melh₂- (“soft, weak”).^[1] Beekes takes βλάξ (blā́x, “slack, stupid”) as its nearest cognate and rejects the old link with the words for grinding.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the 5th century BC: in the Hippocratic writings it means physical softness, and in Herodotus and Thucydides weakness of spirit.^[2][5][3]

Semantic evolution

In Classical prose it was mostly moral: faint-heartedness in Herodotus, Thucydides and Demosthenes, idleness and lack of effort in Lysias and Xenophon, and in Aristotle the softness that is the opposite of endurance.^[2][6] From there it came to mean effeminacy, and in Philo and Plutarch passive homosexual behaviour.^[2][6][3]

In the Septuagint and the New Testament it means bodily weakness or sickness: Matthew pairs it with νόσος (nósos) in the healing of “every disease and every sickness”, a phrase later used on Christian amulets.^[7][2] Latin borrowed it as malacia, which Caesar uses of a calm at sea.^[2][8] English took the medical term malacia “morbid softening of tissue” in the 1650s.^[9]

Medieval texts used it for weakness and illness, and also for masturbation, the sense of the Modern Greek colloquial μαλακία (malakía), which also means stupidity or nonsense.^[10][11][3]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – The Hippocratic writings use it for physical softness, and Herodotus for faint-heartedness.^[2][12]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle sets it against endurance.^[2][6][12]
• 1st century BC to 1st century AD – Philo uses it for effeminate behaviour.^[2][3]
• 1st century AD – The Gospel of Matthew uses it for sickness.^[7][2]
• 1650s – English takes malacia as a medical term.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Softness, physical or of manner.^[2][6]
2. Moral weakness, faint-heartedness.^[2][6]
3. Lack of effort, idleness.^[6]
4. Effeminacy; passive homosexual behaviour.^[2][6]
5. (Koine) Sickness, bodily weakness.^[2][7][6]

Word family

• μαλακίζομαι (malakízomai)

Related words

• μαλακός (malakós)
• Latin malacia
• English malacia

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
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. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ 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
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. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
11. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
12. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge