ποιότης

Forms

ποιότης (poiótēs) f (genitive ποιότητος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek ποιός (poiós, “of some kind”) + -της (-tēs),^[1][2] the indefinite of the interrogative ποῖος (poîos, “of what kind?”),^[3][1] which comes from the Indo-European interrogative Proto-Indo-European *kʷo- (“who?”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plato's Theaetetus has the first use, and Socrates there apologizes for it as a strange word.^[5][3][6]

Semantic evolution

Plato coined it as an abstract noun for the “of-what-kind-ness” of things, and Aristotle made it a term of his philosophy: in the Categories quality, ποιότης, is one of the categories, set against quantity, ποσότης (posótēs).^[5][7] Later it was used in medicine (Galen) and in everyday Greek of papyri, and in fable even of size.^[5]

Latin qualitas, the source of English quality, was made in imitation of it; it is said to have been coined by Cicero to translate the Greek term.^[1][8] Modern Greek ποιότητα (piótita), from the accusative, is a learned continuation whose senses are partly modelled on French qualité.^[9]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Plato's Theaetetus introduces it as a strange new word.^[5][10]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle's Categories makes it a philosophical category.^[5][7][10]
• 2nd century AD – Galen uses it in medicine.^[5][10]
• Modern Greek – ποιότητα (piótita) continues it as a learned word.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Quality, the character of a thing, opposed to quantity.^[5][7][11]
2. (late) Of size.^[5]

Related words

• ποιός (poiós)
• ποσότης (posótēs)
• Latin qualitas
• English quality

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
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 Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ 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. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
11. ^ Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli