στίγμα

Forms

στῐ́γμᾰ (stígma) n (genitive στῐ́γμᾰτος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek στίζω (stízō, “to prick, tattoo”) + -μα (-ma), from the verb's stem στιγ- (stig-).^[1][2][3] The verb is from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teig- (“to prick, sting”).^[4][5] From the same root come Latin īnstīgō (“to goad, incite”), German stechen (“to sting”) and the English word stick.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first use is in the Shield of Heracles attributed to Hesiod (line 166), for the spots on the skin of serpents.^[7][3][2]

Semantic evolution

In Herodotus a στίγμα is a tattoo mark; his “sacred marks” show that the persons who bore them were devoted to the service of a temple.^[7][8] The mark was a sign of ownership or of disgrace: slaves were branded, as in Plato Comicus, and later soldiers too were marked.^[7][3] Paul's “marks of Jesus” in the Epistle to the Galatians use the image of such a brand.^[7][8] The Septuagint uses it for the studs of an ornament.^[7]

The grammarians used it for a punctuation mark, and the geometers for a point, a sense in which σημεῖον competed with it.^[3] It was also the name of the sign for 6, apparently a ligature of ⟨στ⟩.^[3]

It was borrowed into Latin stigma, from which English has stigma, first “a brand made with a hot iron” (1590s), from the 1610s a mark of disgrace, and as the plural stigmata the marks of Christ's wounds on the bodies of saints.^[9][6] The modern Modern Greek στίγμα (stígma) is a learned word; it means a spot or dot, and, under the influence of English stigma, the stigma of a flower, a sign of an inherited disease, and the position of a ship or aircraft.^[10][2]

Timeline

• Before the 6th century BC – The Shield of Heracles uses it of the spots on serpents' skin.^[7][11]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of tattoo marks, including sacred ones.^[7][11]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato Comicus uses it of the brand of a slave.^[7][11]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it of tattoo marks in his biological works.^[7][11]
• 2nd century AD – Polyaenus and Pausanias use it, Pausanias of spots and marks.^[7][11]
• 1590s – English borrows it, through Latin, as stigma.^[6]
• Modern Greek – It survives as a learned word, with senses partly taken from English.^[10][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tattoo mark or brand, especially that of a slave or a soldier, or marks showing devotion to a god; figuratively, of the marks of Jesus.^[7][8]
2. Any mark or spot, as on a serpent's skin.^[7]
3. A stud of an ornament.^[7]
4. (grammar) A punctuation mark.^[3]
5. (geometry) A point.^[3]
6. The sign for the numeral six.^[3]

Word family

• στιγματίζω (stigmatízō)

Related words

• στιγμή (stigmḗ)
• Latin stigma
• English stigma

Usage notes

Modern Greek has a second, learned στίγμα for the sign for six, which Triantafyllidis explains, with some doubt, as a blend of the names σίγμα (sígma) and ταῦ (taû), because the medieval abbreviation for ⟨στ⟩ looked like the old numeral sign.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 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
5. ^ Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
10. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge