παντόμιμος

Forms

παντόμῑμος, -ον (pantómīmos): adjective of two terminations; as a noun ὁ παντόμῑμος.^[1][2]

Etymology

A compound of πᾶς (pâs, “all”), in its combining form παντο- (panto-), and μῖμος (mîmos, “imitator, mime”): “one who imitates everything”.^[3][4][5] Bailly links the second part with the verb μιμέομαι (miméomai, “to imitate”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first text the lexica cite is Lucian's On the Dance (2nd century AD), which says that the Italians call the dancer a pantomimos.^[1][6][2]

Semantic evolution

The word belongs to the Roman Empire: it named the solo dancer who, without speaking or singing, told a story, usually mythological, through movements of the body, the arms and the hands, while a chorus or a singer carried the words.^[7][8] Pape notes that the term arose in Italy in the time of Augustus as a name for the Greek ὀρχηστής (orkhēstḗs, “dancer”),^[9] and ancient writers made Pylades of Cilicia and Bathyllus of Alexandria, freedmen of Augustus and Maecenas, its inventors, about 22 BC; the New Pauly, however, notes an inscription from Priene of the 80s BC that already mentions a pantomime, and roots the genre in Greek mimetic dance of the 4th century BC.^[7][8]

Athenaeus uses it of the performers, and according to the New Pauly it later also named the performance itself.^[10][7] As an adjective it means “pantomimic”: Julian speaks of a pantomimic dancer and the Suda of pantomimic dancing.^[1] Latin had it as pantomimus, the source of English pantomime (1610s, first of the actor).^[7][5] Modern Greek παντόμιμος (pantómimos) is the mime actor.^[3]

Timeline

• 1st century BC – An inscription from Priene of the 80s BC mentions a pantomime.^[7]
• 2nd century AD – Lucian's On the Dance records that the Italians call the dancer pantomimus.^[1][6][11]
• 2nd–3rd century AD – Athenaeus uses it of pantomime performers.^[10][11]
• 1610s – English borrows pantomime from Latin, first for the actor.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. pantomimic; of a dancer or dance that imitates without words.^[1][9]

Noun

1. A pantomime, a performer who represents a story by dance and gesture alone, without speaking.^[1][2][7]

Related words

• μῖμος (mîmos)
• μιμέομαι (miméomai)
• πᾶς (pâs)
• Latin pantomimus
• English pantomime

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
2. ^ a b c d Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
3. ^ a b Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Woordenboek Grieks/Nederlands (2012–), Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, https://woordenboekgrieks.nl
7. ^ a b c d e f Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2002–2010), Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Smith, William; Wayte, William; Marindin, G. E., eds. (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 3rd ed., London: John Murray
9. ^ a b Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
10. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
11. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge