μειδιάω

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /meː.di.á.ɔː/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /mi.ðiˈa.o/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /mi.ðiˈa.o/^[1]

Forms

μειδῐᾰ́ω (meidiáō) ^[1] Homer has only the participle μειδιόων, μειδιόωσα; his aorist is μείδησε, of μειδάω.^[2][3] Later forms: future μειδιάσω, aorist ἐμειδίασα, perfect μεμειδίακα.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *smey- (“to smile”), extended with ⟨δ⟩.^[1][6] The present in ⟨-ιάω⟩ is probably an epic remodelling: the older aorist is the epic μειδῆσαι (meidáō), and the participle ⟨μειδιόων⟩, convenient in verse, was the starting point of the new inflection.^[6][3]

Cognate with Sanskrit स्मयते (smáyate, “smiles”), Latin mīror (“to wonder at”) and English smile.^[1][6] Most other languages lack the ⟨d⟩, but Baltic has it too, so either Baltic and Greek added it independently or they share an old *d-enlargement, which is the view of Chantraine and LIV.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Iliad (7.212) first uses the participle of a warrior who smiles with a grim face, the smile of expected triumph.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

The verb runs from the Homeric Hymns, Sappho and Anacreon through Aristophanes and Plato, and the aorist ἐμειδίασα was used down to Plutarch.^[5][3] Its nouns are μείδημα (meídēma), found once in Hesiod's Theogony, and μειδίαμα (meidíama) in Lucian and Plutarch.^[3][5] It occurs once in the Septuagint, in Sirach, and in the Acts of Paul it is said of a heavenly being.^[8][9]

Modern Greek μειδιώ (midió) is a learned word for smiling slightly.^[10][11]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses the participle of a warrior's grim smile.^[2][12]
• 7th–6th century BC – Sappho uses an Aeolic aorist participle.^[5][13]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses the infinitive in prose.^[3][13]
• Septuagint – Sirach uses it once.^[8][9]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses the aorist and the noun μειδίαμα.^[3][5][13]
• Modern Greek – The learned μειδιώ means to smile slightly.^[10][11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To smile.^[5][2][9]

Word family

• μειδίαμα (meidíama)
• ἐπιμειδιάω (epimeidiáō)
• ὑπομειδιάω (hupomeidiáō)

Related words

• μειδάω (meidáō)
• μείδημα (meídēma)
• φιλομμειδής (philommeidḗs)
• English smile

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
3. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli
5. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ a b c d 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
7. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
12. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge