πληθώρα

Forms

πληθώρα (plēthṓra) f (genitive πληθώρᾱς); first declension^[1] Ionic πληθώρη.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is probably from Ancient Greek πλήθω (plḗthō, “to be full”), formed like ἐλπωρή (elpōrḗ) from ἔλπω (élpō).^[1][4] Πάπυρος sees the suffix -ωρη (-ōrē) of ἀλεωρή (aleōrḗ) and θαλπωρή (thalpōrḗ) added to the stem of the verb, whose root is that of πίμπλημι (pímplēmi).^[5] Babiniotis instead starts from πλῆθος (plêthos) with the same suffix.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Herodotus is the first to use it, in the Ionic form πληθώρη: πληθώρη ἀγορῆς is the time when the marketplace is full, and in the advice of Artabanus to Xerxes it is satiety, a surfeit of good fortune.^[2][4][6]

Semantic evolution

In the Hippocratic writings it is fullness or satiety after food.^[2][7] Later medicine, in Galen and Alexander of Aphrodisias, made it a technical term: an excess of blood or humours in the body, plethora.^[2][4] Zonaras glosses it as a disease and as repletion.^[8] Most of its occurrences in GLAUx are from the 2nd century AD, in Galen's time.^[7]

In Modern Greek πληθώρα (plithóra) is a learned word for a great quantity or abundance; medicine keeps the old sense of an excess of blood.^[9][5] English plethora (1540s) came from it through Late Latin plethora, first as a medical word, and took the figurative meaning “too much of anything” by 1700.^[10]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for the hour of the full marketplace and for satiety.^[2][11]
• 5th century BC – Hippocratic writing uses it for fullness after food.^[2][7][11]
• 2nd century AD – Galen uses it for an excess of blood or humours.^[2][11]
• 3rd century AD – Alexander of Aphrodisias uses it in the same medical sense.^[2][11]
• 1540s – English borrows it, through Late Latin, as plethora.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. Fullness; πληθώρη ἀγορῆς, the time of the full marketplace.^[2][4]
2. Satiety, surfeit.^[2][4]
3. (medicine) An excess of blood or humours, plethora.^[2][4]

Word family

• πληθωρικός (plēthōrikós)

Related words

• πλήθω (plḗthō)
• πλῆθος (plêthos)
• Latin plethora
• English plethora

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
5. ^ a b Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
6. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
7. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ Pseudo-Zonaras, Lexicon, ed. Johann August Heinrich Tittmann (1808), Iohannis Zonarae Lexicon, Leipzig: Crusius
9. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge