ποιητικός

Forms

ποιητῐκός (poiētikós) m (feminine ποιητῐκή, neuter ποιητῐκόν); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek ποιέω (poiéō, “to make”) + -τικός (-tikós).^[1][2] Etymonline derives it from the verbal adjective ποιητός (poiētós, “made”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Isocrates and Plato, in the 4th century BC, both in the sense “creative, productive” and in the sense “poetic”.^[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

Its first meaning is “able to make, creative”: Plato speaks of the productive arts, and Aristotle sets the productive (ποιητικός) against the practical (πρακτικός) and uses it with a genitive of what produces a given effect.^[4][2] Plotinus uses the neuter plural of efficient causes.^[4]

It also came to mean “poetic”: Isocrates speaks of a more poetic diction, Plato calls Homer the most poetic of poets, and the feminine ἡ ποιητική (understood τέχνη) is the art of poetry, the subject of Aristotle's Poetics.^[4][2] Grammarians spoke of poetic licence (Apollonius Dyscolus).^[4] It passed into Latin as poēticus.^[6]

Medieval Greek used it of what belongs to poetry or poets.^[7] Modern Greek ποιητικός (poiitikós) is a learned word: “poetic”, in its sense “full of feeling and imagination” modelled on French poétique, and in grammar ποιητικό αίτιο, the agent, which renders French agent or New Latin agens.^[8] English poetic comes from Latin poeticus or French poétique, and ultimately from this word.^[3]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Isocrates uses it of poetic diction, and Plato of the productive arts and of poets.^[4][2]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle sets it against “practical” and calls poetry ἡ ποιητική.^[4][2]
• 4th–3rd century BC – The comic poet Alexis uses it of inventive persons.^[4]
• 2nd century AD – Apollonius Dyscolus speaks of poetic licence.^[4]
• 3rd century AD – Plotinus uses it of efficient causes.^[4]
• 1520s – English borrows poetic through French or Latin.^[3]
• Modern Greek – The learned ποιητικός (poiitikós) means “poetic”.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Able to make, creative, productive, producing a given effect; in the neuter plural, efficient causes.^[4][2]
2. Of persons, inventive, ingenious.^[4]
3. Poetic, poetical; of persons, gifted for poetry; οἱ ποιητικοί, the poets.^[4][2]
4. Celebrated by the poets; quoted from the poets.^[4]

Noun

1. ἡ ποιητική: the art of poetry; creativity.^[4][2]
2. Poet's ivy, a variety of ivy.^[4]

Related words

• ποιέω (poiéō)
• ποιητής (poiētḗs)
• ποίησις (poíēsis)
• Latin poēticus
• English poetic

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 Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
6. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
7. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki