Etymologically
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σεμνός

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /sem.nós/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /semˈnos/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /semˈnos/[1]

Forms

σεμνός (semnós) m (feminine σεμνή, neuter σεμνόν); first/second declension[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek σέβομαι (sébomai, “to feel awe, revere”) + -νός (-nós), an old verbal adjective *σεβνός (*sebnós) whose /b/ was assimilated to the following /n/.[2][3][1][4] Beekes traces it to Proto-Indo-European *tyegʷ-no-.[2] It is built like ἁγνός (hagnós, “pure, holy”) and τερπνός (terpnós, “delightful”), and Frisk allows a link with the s-stem of σέβας (sébas, “awe”).[3][4]

The ancient grammarian Philoxenus derived it in the same way from σέβω (sébō), with /b/ changed to /m/.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Homeric Hymn to Demeter calls the goddess “revered” in its first line and her rites “holy”.[6][7][2]

Semantic evolution

In Pindar and tragedy it is said of gods and divine things, and at Athens the Erinyes were the “August Goddesses”.[6][8][9] Solon speaks of the revered foundations of justice.[6] It is also used of august persons and stately things: Herodotus has a king sitting in state on a stately throne, and Aristophanes uses it of fine clothes.[6][8] From Sophocles and Euripides on it can mean “proud, haughty”, and in Plato and Aristotle “solemn, pompous”, with irony.[6][8]

Paul uses it seven times, six of them in the Pastoral Epistles, for the serious and dignified conduct asked of church helpers and older men, and Spicq finds the same sense in Hellenistic inscriptions and epitaphs, not a Stoic one.[10][11] Medieval Greek used it of saints and the Virgin and for “serious, decent”.[12] Modern Greek σεμνός (semnós) is a learned word meaning “modest, decent”, a sense taken from the noun for “modesty”.[13][5]

Timeline

  • 7th–6th century BC – The Homeric Hymn to Demeter uses it of the goddess and her rites.[6][7]
  • 7th–6th century BC – Solon uses it of the foundations of justice.[6][14]
  • 6th–5th century BC – Pindar and Aeschylus use it of gods.[6][9][14]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of a king in state, and Sophocles and Euripides of pride.[6][8][14]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it ironically, “solemn, pompous”.[6][14]
  • 1st century AD – Paul uses it of dignified conduct in the Pastoral Epistles.[10][11]
  • Modern Greek – It survives as a learned word meaning “modest”.[13]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of gods, revered, august, holy.[6][8]
  2. Of rites, places and divine things, solemn, holy.[6][8]
  3. Of people and human things, august, stately; of persons, dignified, serious.[6][8][11]
  4. In a bad sense, proud, haughty; of speech, pompous.[6][8]

Word family

  • σεμνότης (semnótēs)
  • σεμνολογία (semnologíā)
  • σεμνύνω (semnúnō)
  • σέβομαι (sébomai)
  • σέβας (sébas)

Usage notes

At Athens the Erinyes were called the Semnaì Theaí, the “August Goddesses”, in tragedy, Thucydides, Aristophanes and the orators.[8][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c 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 Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Βασικό Λεξικό της Αρχαίας Ελληνικής, Portal for the Greek Language, https://www.greek-language.gr
  5. ^ a b Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 Slater, William J. (1969), Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: De Gruyter
  10. ^ a b Spicq, Ceslas (1994), Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, tr. James D. Ernest, 3 vols, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  11. ^ a b c 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
  12. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  13. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  14. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge