παρένθεσις

Forms

πᾰρένθεσῐς (parénthesis) f (genitive πᾰρενθέσεως); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is a noun of action in -σις (-sis), from Ancient Greek παρεντίθημι (parentíthēmi, “to put in beside”), itself made of παρά (pará, “beside”), ἐν (en, “in”) and τίθημι (títhēmi, “to put, place”).^[1][2][3] The literal meaning is therefore “a putting in beside”, an insertion.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest text that has it is the Tactics of Asclepiodotus, of the 1st century BC, where it is the insertion of soldiers into a rank.^[6][4]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed technical and rare in antiquity.^[6] Military writers used it of placing men between others in a line;^[4] physicians of giving food in addition or wrongly, of an injection and of inserting a tent into a wound;^[4] and Galen of applying the lips.^[4] Grammarians used it of a letter inserted into a word, and rhetoricians, from Hermogenes on, of a clause inserted into a sentence: the figure that the Roman rhetorician Quintilian already calls by its Greek name.^[4][2][7] In the 12th century Eustathius still uses it of letters and of digressions inserted into a narrative.^[4]

Latin took the word as parenthesis.^[8] Through Medieval Latin and French it reached English in the 1540s for an inserted clause, and by 1715 it also named the curved brackets that enclose one.^[5] Modern Greek παρένθεση (parénthesi) is a learned word, from the Hellenistic term and French parenthèse.^[9]

Timeline

• 1st century BC – Asclepiodotus uses it of inserting soldiers into a rank.^[6][4]
• 1st century AD – The Roman rhetorician Quintilian uses the Greek name for the inserted clause.^[4][7]
• 2nd century AD – Galen uses it of food given in addition and of applying the lips, and Hermogenes uses it of the rhetorical figure.^[4][10][2]
• 4th century AD – Oribasius uses it of an injection.^[4][10]
• 12th century AD – Eustathius uses it of inserted letters and of inserted stories.^[4][10]
• 1540s – English takes parenthesis from French or Medieval Latin.^[5]
• Modern Greek – The learned παρένθεση (parénthesi) means an inserted phrase and a bracket.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A putting in beside; giving something in addition, or wrongly.^[4]
2. (medicine) An injection; the insertion of a tent into a wound.^[4]
3. (military) The insertion of men into a rank.^[4][11]
4. (grammar) The insertion of a letter into a word.^[4][2]
5. (rhetoric) A parenthesis, a clause inserted into a sentence.^[4][2][12]
6. Application, as of the lips.^[4]

Related words

• τίθημι (títhēmi)
• θέσις (thésis)
• Latin parenthesis
• English parenthesis

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
3. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, online ed., https://www.koeblergerhard.de
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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2002–2010), Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
11. ^ Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli
12. ^ Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg