ποσότης

Forms

ποσότης (posótēs) f (genitive ποσότητος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek πόσος (pósos, “how much?”) + -της (-tēs), with the abstract-noun suffix.^[1][2] Chantraine lists it among the derivatives of that interrogative and of the indefinite ποσός (posós), whose neuter ποσόν (posón) already served as a noun for "quantity".^[3] The pair recalls ποιότης (poiótēs) "quality", a word that Chantraine says Plato created in the Theaetetus.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first secure use is in Aristotle's Metaphysics, where it is the philosophical term for quantity, one of the ways of being besides substance and quality.^[4][5][2]

Semantic evolution

Aristotle's term passed into later prose as the ordinary word for quantity or amount: Polybius uses it in the singular, and Longinus and Sextus Empiricus in the plural.^[4][5] In inscriptions and papyri of the 4th century AD it is an amount or sum of money, and grammarians used it for the quantity of a syllable.^[4] The Apostolic Fathers use it of the size or amount of things, as of the amount of an expense.^[6]

Medieval Greek kept the word and its sense.^[7] Modern Greek ποσότητα (posótita), formed from the accusative, is a learned revival meaning a quantity or amount of anything that can be measured.^[8] It also names the length of sounds and syllables in phonetics and metre.^[9]

Timeline

• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it in the Metaphysics for the category of quantity.^[4][5][10]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it in the singular for an amount.^[4][5]
• 2nd–3rd century AD – Sextus Empiricus uses it in the plural.^[4]
• 4th century AD – Inscriptions and papyri use it for a sum of money.^[4]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular medieval Greek still has the word with its ancient meaning.^[7]
• Modern Greek – The learned ποσότητα (posótita) means a quantity or amount.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Quantity, as a philosophical category; often in the plural.^[4][5]
2. An amount; a sum of money.^[4][6]
3. (grammar) The quantity of a syllable; a number (of letters).^[4]

Related words

• πόσος (pósos)
• ποιότης (poiótēs)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
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 f g h i j 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 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. ^ a b 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
9. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
10. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux