μύρρα

Forms

μύρρᾱ (múrrhā) f (genitive μύρρᾱς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is a Semitic loanword.^[2][3][4] Rosół counts it among the accepted Semitic loanwords, comparing Akkadian murru (“myrrh”) and Biblical Hebrew מֹר (mōr, “myrrh”), and Chantraine calls it a certain loan from West Semitic, perhaps from the root meaning “to be bitter”.^[3][4][1] Wiktionary compares Arabic مُرّ (murr, “myrrh, bitterness”).^[1]

According to Athenaeus, μύρρα was the Aeolic name of σμύρνα (smúrna).^[3][5] Beekes derives that word separately: it may come from an epithet meaning “Smyrnaean”.^[2] Athenaeus derived μύρρα from μύρον (múron, “perfume”), which Πάπυρος calls a folk etymology.^[2][6] It was borrowed as Latin murra.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its earliest attestation is in Sappho, as the Aeolic word for myrrh.^[5][7]

Semantic evolution

Outside Aeolic it was rare: Theophrastus uses it in Attic prose, and Galen and Dioscorides have it.^[5][8] Dioscorides also uses it for the plant otherwise called μυρρίς (murrhís), sweet cicely.^[5] The usual word for myrrh in Herodotus, tragedy and later Greek was σμύρνα (smúrna).^[3][2]

The Χρηστικό Λεξικό of Modern Greek lists μύρρα with a cross-reference to σμύρνα.^[9]

Timeline

• 7th–6th century BC – Sappho uses it for myrrh.^[5][10]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus uses it in Attic prose.^[5][10]
• 1st century AD – Dioscorides uses it for sweet cicely.^[5][10]
• 2nd–3rd century AD – Athenaeus records it as the Aeolic word for σμύρνα.^[3][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Aeolic) Myrrh, the same as σμύρνα (smúrna).^[5][7]
2. Sweet cicely, the same as μυρρίς (murrhís).^[5]

Related words

• σμύρνα (smúrna)
• μυρρίς (murrhís)
• Latin murra

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 d e Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
4. ^ a b 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
7. ^ a b Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
9. ^ Ακαδημία Αθηνών (2014), Χρηστικό Λεξικό της Νεοελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Academy of Athens
10. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge