μανία

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /ma.ní.aː/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /maˈni.a/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /maˈni.a/^[1]

Forms

μᾰνῐ́ᾱ (maníā) f (genitive μᾰνῐ́ᾱς); first declension^[1] Ionic μανίη.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek μαίνομαι (maínomai, “to rage, be mad”) + -ία (-íā), formed from the root of the verb.^[1][4][5]

μαίνομαι (maínomai) is an old present *mn̥-yé/ó- of the root *men- (“to think”), formally matching Sanskrit मन्यते (mányate, “thinks”), Old Church Slavonic мьнѣти (mĭněti, “to think”) and Lithuanian miniù (“to remember”).^[4][5][6][1] In Greek the general sense “to think” turned very early to that of frenzy.^[7] The same root gives μένος (ménos, “fury, might”) and μέμονα (mémona, “to be eager”), and Latin meminī (“I remember”) and moneō (“to warn”).^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the elegies of Theognis, where Madness is also personified.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Greek it is madness or insanity: Herodotus speaks of madness as a disease, the Hippocratic writers treat it in medicine, and Sophocles uses it in tragedy.^[2][3] By exaggeration it is used of stupid or outrageous behaviour, in Aristophanes and the orators.^[3]

A madness could also come from the gods: Euripides speaks of the madness sent by Dionysus, and Plato in the Phaedrus praises the possession and madness that come from the Muses, setting divine madness above human self-control; in the Symposium he speaks of the “madness and Bacchic frenzy” of philosophy.^[2][3] Love, too, is a madness, from Anacreon and Ibycus to Plato's “erotic madness”, and later it is a mad desire for something.^[2][3] A drinking song uses it of the fury of a wind.^[3]

The Septuagint has it for madness,^[8] and in Acts the governor Festus tells Paul that his great learning is driving him mad.^[9][10]

Medieval vernacular Greek used it for madness, great anger, warlike fury, violence, hatred and passion.^[11] In Modern Greek μανία (manía) is above all a passion or obsession for something, and violence or fury; in psychiatry it is a mental disorder.^[12][7]

Timeline

• 6th century BC – Theognis personifies Madness.^[3][2]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus calls madness a disease.^[2][3]
• 5th century BC – Euripides speaks of the madness sent by Dionysus.^[2][3]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato praises divine madness in the Phaedrus.^[2]
• 1st century AD – Festus tells Paul that learning is driving him mad.^[9]
• 1100–1669 – Medieval vernacular Greek uses it also for anger and fury.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. madness, insanity, and by exaggeration folly.^[2][3]
2. (personified) Madness.^[3]
3. A frenzy sent by the gods; inspiration, as from the Muses.^[2][3]
4. The madness of love; a mad desire for something.^[2][3]
5. Fury, as of a wind.^[3]

Word family

• μανικός (manikós)
• μανιακός (maniakós)

Related words

• μαίνομαι (maínomai)
• μαινάς (mainás)
• μάντις (mántis)
• English mania

Usage notes

Hesychius explains it as anger, rage and wrath.^[13]

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 Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
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. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ a b Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
7. ^ a b Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
8. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
9. ^ a b 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
10. ^ Spicq, Ceslas (1994), Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, tr. James D. Ernest, 3 vols, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
11. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
12. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
13. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)