πάνδημος

Forms

πάνδημος (pándēmos) ^[1]

Etymology

It is a compound from Ancient Greek παν- (pan-) + δῆμος (dêmos, “people”), “of the whole people”.^[1][2][3] The Doric form is πάνδαμος (pándamos), which Sophocles uses in a lyric passage of the Ajax.^[4][2] Πάπυρος compares the formation with ἀπόδημος (apódēmos).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in 5th-century BC tragedy:^[6][7] in Sophocles it describes cattle belonging to the whole people, a city taken in its entire population and an army in full force, and in Euripides a public contest and public buildings.^[4][8][9]

Semantic evolution

In prose it was the usual form of the adjective that poetry also had as πανδήμιος (pandḗmios).^[4][8] From “belonging to all the people” it came to mean “common”, and then “vulgar”: in Plato's Symposium the “common” Eros and Aphrodite, the love of the body, are set against the “heavenly” ones, and Aristoxenus spoke of common, vulgar music.^[4][2][5] Philodemus used it of ordinary speech, and Galen of diseases that affect a whole population.^[4]

Aphrodite Pandemos and Zeus Pandemos were worshipped at Athens.^[4] Photius explains that the Aphrodite in the old agora had the name because the whole people used to gather there.^[4][10] Through Late Latin pandemus the medical sense reached English as pandemic in the 1660s.^[11]

Medieval vernacular Greek used it learnedly for “universal, general”.^[12] Modern Greek πάνδημος (pándimos) is a learned word for something done with the whole people taking part, such as a national celebration.^[13][5]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it of a whole city and a whole army, and Euripides of a public contest.^[4][9][7]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato contrasts the “common” Eros and Aphrodite with the “heavenly” ones.^[4][7]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle quotes Alcidamas's phrase for the favour of the whole people.^[4][2]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it of general renown.^[4][7]
• 2nd century AD – Galen applies it to diseases that strike a whole people, the sense of English “pandemic”.^[4][7]
• 1660s – English takes it, through Late Latin, as pandemic.^[11]
• Modern Greek – It survives as a learned adjective for what the whole people takes part in.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or belonging to the whole people; public: of a city or army taken as a whole, of a contest or building open to all.^[4][2][9]
2. General, shared by all: of favour, renown or an office.^[4][3]
3. (medicine) Affecting a whole people, pandemic.^[4]
4. Common, vulgar, ordinary: of love (opposed to “heavenly”), music or speech.^[4][2][5]
5. An epithet of Aphrodite and of Zeus as gods of the whole people.^[4][10]

Related words

• πανδήμιος (pandḗmios)
• English pandemic

Usage notes

The adverb πανδήμως means “with the whole people”, the same as πανδημεί (pandēmeí).^[4]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
3. ^ a b Malhadas, Daisi; Dezotti, Maria Celeste C.; Neves, Maria Helena de Moura, eds. (2006–2010), Dicionário Grego-Português, São Paulo: Ateliê; digital ed. 3 (2022), UNESP Araraquara
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
6. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
8. ^ a b Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
9. ^ a b c Woordenboek Grieks/Nederlands (2012–), Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, https://woordenboekgrieks.nl
10. ^ a b Photius, Lexicon, ed. Christos Theodoridis, vol. 1 (Α–Δ) (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1982); ed. Richard Porson (Cambridge, 1822)
11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
13. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki