μεταφέρω

Forms

μεταφέρω (metaphérō) ^[1]

Etymology

It is a compound from Ancient Greek μετά (metá) + φέρω (phérō, “to carry”), the prefix expressing change.^[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It appears in 5th-century BC Attic, in Sophocles' Philoctetes, Euripides and Thucydides.^[3][4] In the Philoctetes it is used of changing one's mind.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Its basic sense is to carry something from one place to another, and Thucydides, the orators and Plato use it of moving people, things and burdens such as trierarchies.^[4][5] It also meant to change or alter, and to transfer laws or customs from abroad.^[4][5] Aristotle made it a term of rhetoric: to carry a word over to a new sense, to use a metaphor, and the noun μεταφορά (metaphorā́) became the name of the figure.^[4][2]

Medieval vernacular Greek kept the verb, and Modern Greek μεταφέρω (metaféro) is a learned continuation meaning to carry or transport, to transfer and to translate.^[6][7]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it of changing one's mind, and Thucydides of carrying something elsewhere.^[4][3]
• 4th century BC – Demosthenes uses it of shifting the burden of the trierarchy from the poor to the rich.^[4]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it of transferring a word to a new sense.^[4]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular Greek keeps the verb.^[6]
• Modern Greek – The learned verb μεταφέρω (metaféro) means to transport or transfer.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To carry across, to transfer or move to another place.^[4][5]
2. To change or alter.^[4]
3. To transfer or import laws and customs from elsewhere; to borrow material from another source.^[5]
4. (rhetoric) To transfer a word to a new sense; to use a metaphor.^[4][5]

Word family

• μεταφορά (metaphorā́)

Related words

• φέρω (phérō)
• English metaphor

References

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