Etymologically
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πτῶμα

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /ptɔ̂ː.ma/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈpto.ma/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈpto.ma/[1]

Forms

πτῶμᾰ (ptôma) n (genitive πτώμᾰτος); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek πίπτω (píptō, “to fall”) + -μα (-ma), a noun of result, on the long-vowel stem πτω- (ptō-) that the verb shows in the perfect πέπτωκα (péptōka).[1][2] Beekes lists it among the derivatives of the verb, with πτῶσις (ptôsis, “fall; grammatical case”).[2] Etymonline and Babiniotis trace the verb to the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *pet- (“to rush, fly, fall”).[3][4]

Its sense “corpse” is literally “that which has fallen”.[5] Wiktionary compares Latin cadāver, from cadō (“to fall”).[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first texts are Aeschylus' tragedies: the Prometheus Bound speaks of an unbearable fall, and in the Suppliants the word seems to mean the fallen bodies of men that stain the ground.[6][7]

Semantic evolution

In tragedy it is a fall, a downfall and a calamity sent by the gods, and with the genitive a fallen body: Euripides speaks of the body of Helen and of Eteocles.[6][8] Plato uses it of a city's downfall and of a fall in wrestling.[8] In Hellenistic prose it means a corpse without any genitive, as in Polybius, who also uses it for the ruins of a wall; inscriptions from Delos use it for ruined buildings.[6][8] Dioscorides uses the plural for bruises from a fall, and papyri for payments falling due.[6]

In the Gospels it is a dead body, especially of one killed by violence, and the carcass round which the vultures gather.[5] It survives as Modern Greek πτώμα (ptóma), a learned word for a corpse.[9] In 1878 the Italian chemist Francesco Selmi coined ptomaina from it for the poisons formed in decaying matter, whence English ptomaine.[3]

Timeline

  • 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it for a fall and for fallen bodies.[6][7][10]
  • 5th century BC – Euripides uses it for a calamity and for the body of a slain person.[6][10]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it for the downfall of a city and a fall in wrestling.[8][10]
  • 3rd century BC – Inscriptions from Delos use it for ruined buildings.[6]
  • 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it for a corpse and for the ruins of a wall.[6][8][10]
  • 1st century AD – Dioscorides uses the plural for bruises; the Gospels use it for a corpse.[6][5][10]
  • 1878 – Francesco Selmi coins Italian ptomaina from it.[3]
  • Modern Greek – πτώμα is a learned word for a corpse.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A fall, from a height or to the ground; a downfall.[6][8]
  2. A fall in wrestling.[6][8]
  3. A misfortune, calamity.[6]
  4. (in the plural, medicine) Injuries from falls, bruises.[6]
  5. A fallen body, corpse, carcass.[6][8][5]
  6. A ruin of a building or wall; a breach in a city wall.[6][8]
  7. (papyri) A payment falling due.[6]
  • πίπτω (píptō)
  • πτῶσις (ptôsis)
  • σύμπτωμα (súmptōma)
  • English ptomaine

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f 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 c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  5. ^ a b c d e 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
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  10. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge