Etymologically
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μικρός

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /miː.krós/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /miˈkros/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /miˈkros/[1]

Forms

μῑκρός (mīkrós) m (feminine μῑκρᾱ́, neuter μῑκρόν); first/second declension[1] Older and poetic σμικρός.[2][3] Doric and Ionic μικκός.[2][3] Herodotus probably has only σμικρός, tragedy almost always, and Plato most often; in Thucydides and Comedy μικρός prevails.[2]

Etymology

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek, from Pre-Greek.[4][3] The words of this group have a familiar, colloquial look, shown by the variants μικός (mikós) and geminated μικκός (mīkkós); the variation between /sm-/ and /m-/ in σμικρός (smīkrós) and μικρός and between /k/ and /kk/ are features he finds in Pre-Greek words.[4][3] He rejects a connection with the comparative μείων (meíōn), with the /k/ taken from its opposite μακρός (makrós), because the form with /sm-/ is the older one and the comparative has no /s-/.[4]

The traditional etymology derives it from Proto-Indo-European *(s)meyg- (“small, thin, delicate”), making it cognate with Old English smicor (“beautiful, elegant”); but that leaves the Greek /k/ unexplained.[1] Etymonline gives a root Proto-Indo-European *smik- (“small”), but notes Beekes's view.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it means small in size: in the Iliad Tydeus is said to have been small in body but a fighter, and the Odyssey speaks of a small stone.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Greek it means small in size or quantity, slight or trivial in importance, short in time, and, in an ostracon of the 2nd century BC, young in age.[2] Its cases served as adverbs: μικροῦ (mikroû) “almost”, μικρόν (mikrón) “a little”, and phrases such as κατὰ μικρόν (katà mikrón) “little by little” and παρὰ μικρόν (parà mikrón) “within a little”.[2]

Medieval Greek kept μικρός, and also the older form σμικρός (smīkrós).[7] Modern Greek μικρός (mikrós) continues it, with medieval diminutives such as μικρούλης (mikroúlis) and μικρούτσικος (mikroútsikos).[8] Through Latin it gave the international prefix micro-.[5]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for small size; the Iliad also has σμικρός.[2][9]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses σμικρός of a small quantity added to a small one.[2][10]
  • 6th century BC – Theognis uses σμικρός for a trivial pretext.[2][10]
  • 5th century BC – Thucydides prefers the form μικρός.[2][10]
  • 2nd century BC – An ostracon uses it for young age.[2]
  • Medieval Greek – Both μικρός and σμικρός are used.[7]
  • Modern Greek – It survives as Modern Greek μικρός (mikrós).[8]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Small, little in size.[2]
  2. Small in quantity.[2]
  3. Small in importance: petty, trivial, slight.[2]
  4. Of time, short.[2]
  5. Of age, young.[2]

Adverb

  1. (genitive, μικροῦ) Almost; within a little.[2]
  2. (neuter, μικρόν) A little; for a short time.[2]

Word family

  • μικρολογία (mīkrologíā)
  • μικρότης (mikrótēs)
  • σμικρός (smīkrós)
  • μικκός (mīkkós)
  • English micro-

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  7. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  9. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  10. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge