μεῖραξ

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /mêː.raks/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈmi.raks/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈmi.raks/^[1]

Forms

μεῖρᾰξ (meîrax) f or m (genitive μείρᾰκος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is a familiar formation in -αξ (-ax), feminine like δέλφαξ (délphax) and πόρταξ (pórtax), built on a lost noun, perhaps *μεῖρος (*meîros) or *μεῖρα (*meîra), which the more expressive μεῖραξ replaced.^[2][3][4] The lost noun would continue from Proto-Indo-European *méryos (“young man; girl”), and match Sanskrit मर्य (márya, “young man, lover”) and Avestan mairiia.^[2][1][3] Sanskrit also has मर्यक (maryaká, “little man”), which Beekes and Frisk take as a separate formation.^[2][4]

More distant comparisons are Lithuanian mergà (“girl”), Lithuanian martì (“bride”), Latin marītus (“married”) and Welsh morwyn (“maiden”).^[2][3] Beekes finds them a little weak, and suggests that the Greek and Indo-Iranian word may be a shared innovation.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Attic comedy of the 5th century BC: Cratinus uses it for a young girl.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

In Aristophanes and Menander it is a colloquial word for a girl or lass.^[5][7] Cratinus and later Lucian used it insultingly of effeminate men.^[5] The diminutives took over in Greek: μειράκιον (meirákion) became the usual word for a lad.^[2][4] In later writers μεῖραξ itself became masculine and meant a boy, as in 4 Maccabees, in the physician Aretaeus and in Heliodorus.^[5][8][2] Medieval Greek kept it as a word for a youth.^[9]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Cratinus uses it for a girl and, as an insult, for effeminate men.^[5][10]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it for a young girl.^[5][7][10]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Menander uses it for a girl.^[5][7][10]
• 2nd century AD – Aretaeus uses it as a masculine, a boy.^[5][10]
• 3rd century AD – Heliodorus uses it for a lad.^[5][10]
• Byzantine period – Medieval Greek uses it for a youth.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A young girl, lass.^[5][7]
2. (insult) An effeminate man.^[5]
3. (later, masculine) A boy, lad, youth.^[5][8]

Word family

• μειρακιεύομαι (meirakieúomai)
• μειράκιον (meirákion)
• μειρακιόομαι (meirakióomai)
• μειρακίσκη (meirakískē)
• μειρακίσκος (meirakískos)
• μειρακιώδης (meirakiṓdēs)
• μειρακιωδῶς (meirakiōdôs)
• μειρακύλλιον (meirakúllion)
• μειρακεύομαι (meirakeúomai)
• συμμεῖραξ (summeîrax)

Usage notes

Ammonius distinguishes it from μειράκιον (meirákion) and μειρακίσκος (meirakískos): those are used of a boy, μεῖραξ of a girl.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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
3. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b c d Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
9. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
10. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
11. ^ [Ammonius], De adfinium vocabulorum differentia, ed. K. Nickau (Leipzig: Teubner, 1966)