περιοδικός

Forms

περῐοδῐκός (periodikós) m (feminine περῐοδῐκή, neuter περῐοδῐκόν); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

From περίοδος (períodos) “a going round, a cycle; a period of speech” and the adjectival suffix -ικός (-ikós).^[1][2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Stoic Chrysippus, in the 3rd century BC, uses it of diseases that keep coming back at intervals.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The adjective followed the senses of περίοδος (períodos).^[5][3] In medicine it described recurrent fevers and chills, as in Dioscorides; in astronomy and astrology it was used of the moon's periodic number (Plutarch) and of recurring seasons (Vettius Valens).^[5][6] In rhetoric it meant “made up of periods”, of a style of long, rounded sentences, in Demetrius' On Style and Hermogenes.^[5][3] Metricians called a hexameter in which dactyls and spondees alternate “periodic”.^[5][3] Ptolemy also used it in the older sense of a journey round: knowledge “gathered on travels”.^[5][3]

Late Latin took the word as Latin periodicus, whence French périodique and English periodic (1640s).^[7] Modern Greek περιοδικός (periodikós) is a learned continuation of the Hellenistic word, and its neuter περιοδικό (periodikó) names a magazine or periodical, a sense modelled on French and English.^[8][9][10]

Timeline

• 3rd century BC – Chrysippus uses it of recurrent diseases.^[5]
• 3rd–1st century BC – Demetrius' On Style uses it of the periodic sentence.^[5][11]
• 1st century AD – Dioscorides speaks of periodic chills and fevers.^[5][11]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it of the moon's periodic number.^[5][11]
• 2nd century AD – Ptolemy uses it of knowledge gathered on travels, and Hermogenes has the adverb of periodic style.^[5][11]
• 1640s – English periodic is first recorded, from French and Late Latin.^[7]
• Modern Greek – The learned περιοδικός (periodikós) means “periodic”, and its neuter means a periodical.^[8][9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Acquired on journeys, from travel.^[5][3]
2. Periodic, returning at fixed times; of illness, recurrent, intermittent.^[5][6][12]
3. (rhetoric) Composed in periods, of rounded sentences.^[5][3]
4. (metrics) Of a hexameter in which dactyls and spondees alternate.^[5][3]

Related words

• περίοδος (períodos)
• περιοδεύω (periodeúō)
• Latin periodicus
• English periodic

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. ^ Βικιλεξικό, the Greek Wiktionary, https://el.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ a b Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
10. ^ Ακαδημία Αθηνών (2014), Χρηστικό Λεξικό της Νεοελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Academy of Athens
11. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
12. ^ Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli