πνευμονία

Forms

πνευμονίᾱ (pneumoníā) f (genitive πνευμονίας); first declension^[1][2] Also πλευμονία (pleumonía), the form LSJ heads the word under.^[3][1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek πνεύμων (pneúmōn, “lung”) + -ία (-ía), an abstract noun of disease.^[1][2][4] πνεύμων (pneúmōn) is the usual spelling of older πλεύμων (pleúmōn), remodelled after πνέω (pnéō, “to breathe”) and πνεῦμα (pneûma).^[5][6]

The older noun is from Proto-Hellenic *pléwmōn, from Proto-Indo-European *pléwmō (“lung”).^[1] Beekes and Chantraine compare Sanskrit क्लोमन् (klóman, “right lung”) and Latin pulmō, though the correspondences are not exact, and Beekes also compares Lithuanian plaũčiai (“lungs”).^[5][6] Chantraine reports the derivation from πλέω (pléō, “to float”), the lung being the organ that floats in water.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest records are a comic fragment of unknown author, in the form πλευμονία (pleumonía), and the physician Mnesitheus, quoted by Plutarch, both for a disease of the lungs.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

In Greek medicine the common name of the disease was the compound περιπλευμονία (peripleumonía); πνευμονία and πλευμονία were the rarer forms.^[5] The word lived on in Byzantine and vernacular Greek, where a medical text pairs πλευμονία with cough among the ills it treats, and dialects still have forms like πλεμονία (plemonía).^[7]

Modern Latin took it up as Latin pneumonia, the source of English pneumonia (about 1600), French pneumonie and the other European words.^[1][8] Modern Greek πνευμονία (pnevmonía) is a learned form of the Hellenistic word, the name of the acute infection of the lungs.^[9][10]

Timeline

• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch quotes Mnesitheus for the disease of the lungs.^[3][2][11]
• 10th century AD – The Hippiatrica, the Byzantine veterinary collection, has the word in a conjectured reading.^[3][11]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular medical texts use πλευμονία (pleumonía) for inflammation of the lungs.^[7]
• About 1600 – English pneumonia is first recorded, from Modern Latin.^[8]
• Modern Greek – The word is used as a learned medical term for the infection of the lungs.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A disease of the lungs, pneumonia.^[3][2][12]

Related words

• πλεύμων (pleúmōn)
• περιπλευμονία (peripleumonía)
• πλευμονίς (pleumonís)
• Latin pneumonia
• English pneumonia

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
3. ^ a b c d e Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
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 d 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
6. ^ a b c Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
7. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ Ακαδημία Αθηνών (2014), Χρηστικό Λεξικό της Νεοελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Academy of Athens
11. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
12. ^ Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg