ποίημα

Forms

ποίημᾰ (poíēma) n (genitive ποιήμᾰτος); third declension^[1] Argive ποιϝήματα (poiwḗmata) (plural), on an inscription of the 6th century BC.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek ποιέω (poiéō, “to make”) + -μα (-ma, “result of an action”).^[1][2][3] The Argive spelling ποιϝήματα (poiwḗmata) keeps the /w/ of the verb, which Beekes reconstructs as *ποιϝεjω (*poiwejō) and connects, with doubts about the exact derivation, with Sanskrit चिनोति (cinóti, “to pile up, arrange”).^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

An Argive inscription of the 6th century BC uses it for things made, and Herodotus for works of metal and the work of the sculptor Glaucus of Chios.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is anything made, an object or a work of art, Plato uses it of the works of Daedalus and, figuratively, of a lover's invention.^[2][5] From the late 5th century BC, through ποιέω (poiéō) in the sense “to compose poetry”, it meant a poem: Cratinus and Plato have this sense, and Isocrates speaks of works in metre.^[2][5][3] Philosophers used it for an act or deed, opposed to what one suffers.^[2][5] Later it could mean metrical form, a fiction (Arrian), or an onomatopoeic word.^[2]

The Septuagint and the New Testament use it for the works of God's creation: Paul says that God's invisible nature is seen in the things he has made.^[6][2] Latin poēma was borrowed from it.^[7][8]

Modern Greek ποίημα (píima) is a learned word for a poem; its figurative use for anything very beautiful (“that dress is a poem”) is a semantic loan from French poème.^[8]

Timeline

• 6th century BC – An Argive inscription has ποιϝήματα (poiwḗmata), things made.^[2]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for works in gold, bronze and iron.^[2][5]
• 5th century BC – Cratinus uses it for a poem.^[2]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it for a poem and for an act, and Isocrates for verse compositions.^[2][5]
• 1st century AD – Paul uses it for the works of creation.^[6]
• 2nd century AD – Hephaestion uses it for metrical form in the title of a treatise.^[2]
• Modern Greek – ποίημα (píima) means a poem.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Anything made: a work, an object, a work of art.^[2][5]
2. An invention, a fiction.^[2][5]
3. A poem; a work in metre.^[2][5]
4. Poetical, especially metrical, form.^[2]
5. A deed, an act, as opposed to what one suffers.^[2][5]
6. (Septuagint, New Testament) A work of God's creation.^[6]

Related words

• ποιημάτιον (poiēmátion)
• ποίησις (poíēsis)
• ποιητής (poiētḗs)
• ποιήτρια (poiḗtria)
• ποιητικός (poiētikós)
• ποιέω (poiéō)
• Latin poēma

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 l m n o p q r s Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ a b c Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
7. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
8. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki