πυραμίς

Forms

πῡρᾰμῐ́ς (pūramís) f (genitive πῡρᾰμῐ́δος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is disputed.^[1] In the sense of a cake of roasted wheat and honey, the word is derived from πυρός (pūrós, “wheat”) on the model of σησαμίς (sēsamís, “sesame cake”).^[2][3][4] Diels proposed that the Egyptian pyramids were named after this cake, but, as Kretschmer pointed out, nobody knows what shape the cake had, and the monument is recorded a century before the cake.^[2][3][1] The usual name of the cake is πυραμοῦς (pūramoûs).^[2][5]

The other proposal is a borrowing from Egyptian pr-m-ws (“height of a pyramid”), but that Egyptian term is attested some 1,100 years earlier than the Greek word.^[1] Etymonline also takes the Greek word as an alteration of an Egyptian word.^[6]

Ancient writers such as Ammianus Marcellinus derived it from πῦρ (pûr, “fire”), because the shape is pointed.^[4] Stephanus of Byzantium derived it from the word for wheat.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Herodotus uses it for the pyramids of Egypt in his second book.^[4][7]

Semantic evolution

Plato's Timaeus made it the geometrical solid, and Aristotle uses it in the same sense.^[4][7] Speusippus used it for a pyramidal number.^[4][7] It also named a farm building and a fountain, and, in Ephippus, a cake.^[4] Diodorus and Strabo use it for the Egyptian monuments, and a papyrus of the 3rd century AD for a tomb monument.^[4]

Latin took it over as Latin pyramis, the source of the English word pyramid.^[8][6] Medieval Greek kept the word, and the form Byzantine Greek πυραμίδα (piramída) is recorded by Somavera and current today.^[9] Modern Greek uses it for the geometrical solid and the monument, and, in a sense calqued on English, for a chart of a layered structure, such as a population pyramid.^[9][10]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for the pyramids of Egypt.^[4][7][11]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato's Timaeus uses it for the geometrical solid.^[4][11]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it in geometry.^[4][11]
• 1st century BC – Diodorus Siculus describes the Egyptian pyramids.^[4][11]
• Modern Greek – πυραμίδα is the geometrical solid, the monument and a layered chart.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pyramid, especially one of the Egyptian pyramids; a tomb monument.^[4]
2. (geometry) A pyramid as a solid figure.^[4]
3. A pyramidal number.^[4]
4. The name of a farm building and of a fountain.^[4]
5. A kind of cake of roasted wheat and honey.^[4][2]

Related words

• πυρός (pūrós)
• πυραμοῦς (pūramoûs)
• Latin pyramis
• English pyramid

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ 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
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
9. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge