ποίησις

Forms

ποίησῐς (poíēsis) f (genitive ποιήσεως); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek ποιέω (poiéō, “to make”) + -σις (-sis), a noun of action from the verb.^[1][2] The verb once had a /w/ after its root, as Argive and Boeotian inscriptions with ⟨ϝ⟩ show; it is usually connected with Sanskrit चिनोति (cinóti, “to pile up, arrange”), though Beekes finds the exact formation unclear.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Herodotus uses it in the 5th century BC both for the making of a thing, such as a perfume, and for poetry and a poetic work.^[4][5][6]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant any making or production, and in Plato and Aristotle it stands for making as opposed to πρᾶξις (prâxis, “action”).^[4][5][2] Beside this general sense, the making of verse was “making” par excellence: from Herodotus on it is the art of poetry, a poem, or a whole poetic work, as in Plato's phrase for what Homer composed.^[4][5] In Attic law it was also a short form of εἰσποίησις (eispoíēsis), adoption, used by Isaeus and Demosthenes.^[4]

In the New Testament it means doing, the doer being blessed in what he does (James 1:25).^[7] It was borrowed into Latin as poesis,^[8] the source, through French, of the English word poesy.^[9] Vernacular medieval Greek kept the word,^[10] and Modern Greek ποίηση (poíisi) is a learned form of it: its first, “creation”, sense is the ancient one, while poetry as a literary genre and its kinds owe their modern use to French poésie.^[11]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for making a perfume, for the art of poetry and for a poem, and Thucydides uses it for building ships.^[4][6]
• 5th century BC – Pherecrates speaks of the composition of dithyrambs.^[4]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it of making in general and of tragedy and epic, and Isaeus uses it for adoption.^[4][6]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle sets making against action.^[4][6]
• 1st century AD – The Epistle of James uses it for doing.^[7]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular medieval Greek still has the word.^[10]
• Modern Greek – The learned ποίηση (poíisi) means poetry and a poem.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. Creation, production, making of something; making as opposed to acting.^[4][5]
2. The art of poetry; poetic composition.^[4][5]
3. A poem or poetic work.^[4]
4. (law) Adoption of a son; collectively, those adopted.^[4]
5. (New Testament) Doing, performing.^[7]

Word family

• εἰσποίησις (eispoíēsis)
• ἐκποίησις (ekpoíēsis)
• ὁδοποίησις (hodopoíēsis)
• παιδοποίησις (paidopoíēsis)
• προσποίησις (prospoíēsis)

Related words

• ποιέω (poiéō)
• Latin poesis
• English poesy

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
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 g h i j k l Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
9. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki