πομπή

Forms

πομπή (pompḗ) f (genitive πομπῆς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek πέμπω (pémpō, “to send, escort”), an action noun with the ⟨o⟩ grade of the verb's root, as in the perfect πέπομφα (pépompha).^[2][3][4] The verb itself has no Indo-European etymology, and Beekes finds in it none of the marks of a loanword or of Pre-Greek vocabulary.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it means the escort or guidance that brings someone safely to a destination, given by gods or by men, and the sending of a guest on his way home.^[5][6][7] In the Iliad Bellerophon travels to Lycia “under the blameless escort of the gods”.^[6][5]

Semantic evolution

Lyric and tragedy kept the Homeric senses: Pindar uses it of conveyance by ship and of the sending of winds, Euripides of a fair wind that carries a fleet, and Aeschylus of a band of escorts.^[6][7] From “sending” came the sense of a mission or of something sent: in Herodotus a dream comes by the sending of a god, and Thucydides uses it of a shipment of timber.^[6][7]

The most lasting sense, the solemn procession at a festival, is in Heraclitus and Herodotus and became usual in Attic, where one “sent” a procession (πομπὴν πέμπειν).^[6][7] In Polybius and Plutarch it is the triumphal procession of a Roman general, and a dialogue ascribed to Plato uses it of pomp and parade in speech.^[6][7] It was borrowed as Latin pompa, the source of English pomp through Old French.^[8][9]

Because the processions of Dionysus were occasions for coarse jests, the verb πομπεύω (pompeúō) came to mean “to abuse”, and by the 2nd century AD the noun could mean invective; later it was a procession of public shame, in which an offender was paraded through the streets.^[4] Medieval vernacular Greek used it for public disgrace and shame.^[10] Modern Greek πομπή (pombí) has two layers: a learned one, the procession, and a popular one, the shame or disgrace, a sense taken from the medieval verb.^[11]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it of safe escort and of sending a guest on his way.^[5][6]
• 6th–5th century BC – Heraclitus speaks of a procession held for Dionysus, and Pindar uses it of conveyance by ship.^[6][7]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of a dream sent by a god and of religious processions, and Thucydides of a shipment of timber.^[6][7]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it of the Roman triumph.^[6][7]
• 2nd century AD – Artemidorus uses it of abusive speech.^[4]
• 4th–5th century AD – John Chrysostom speaks of a shameful procession, a public parading of an offender.^[4]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular Greek uses it for public disgrace and shame.^[10]
• Modern Greek – πομπή (pombí) means a ceremonial procession and, colloquially, a disgrace.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. Escort, safe conduct, guidance, given by gods or men; also of a ship carrying someone, or of a fair wind.^[6][7][5]
2. (concrete) A band of escorts.^[6]
3. A sending away or home, dispatch.^[6][7]
4. A mission; the sending of something: a dream sent by a god, a shipment of timber.^[6][7]
5. A solemn procession at a festival; in the phrase πομπὴν πέμπειν, to hold a procession.^[6][7]
6. (at Rome) A triumphal procession.^[6][7]
7. (figurative) Pomp, parade.^[6]
8. (late) Abusive speech, invective; a public parading of an offender in disgrace.^[4]

Word family

• πομπεύω (pompeúō)
• πομπικός (pompikós)

Related words

• πέμπω (pémpō)
• πομπός (pompós)
• ψυχοπομπός (psukhopompós)
• Latin pompa
• English pomp

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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
3. ^ a b 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
4. ^ a b c d e Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
5. ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University 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