Etymologically
Log in

τραγῳδία

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 04:53. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /tra.ɡɔːi̯.dí.aː/[1]
  • IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /tra.ɣoˈði.a/[1]
  • IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /tra.ɣoˈði.a/[1]

Forms

τρᾰγῳδῐ́ᾱ (tragōidíā) f (genitive τρᾰγῳδίᾱς); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is derived from τραγῳδός (tragōidós, “tragic singer or actor”) with the suffix -ία.[2][3][1] τραγῳδός is from Ancient Greek τράγος (trágos, “he-goat”) + ἀοιδή (aoidḗ, “song”), “goat-singer”; a late Boeotian inscription still spells it τραγαϝυδος.[4][5][2] Beekes and Frisk think it was probably formed on the pattern of ῥαψῳδός (rhapsōidós), and that its further explanation is uncertain.[2][3]

The ancient explanation, found in the Parian Marble, is that a goat was the prize in the earliest tragic contests, and Else defended it with new arguments.[5][2][3] The CGL also allows a singer at a goat sacrifice.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Aristophanes uses it for a tragedy and for composing tragedies.[5][4]

Semantic evolution

In Plato, Aristotle and the orators it is the genre and the single play; inscriptions of the Hellenistic age mention “poets of tragedies”.[5][4] Plato extends it to any grave poetry, so that Homer can count as a tragic poet, and calls the imitation of the noblest life “the truest tragedy”, and he also speaks of the tragedy and comedy of life.[5][4]

From the 4th century BC it was used of exaggerated speech (Hyperides), of horror stories in historians (Polybius, Diodorus), and of pomp and play-acting (Plutarch, Lucian).[5][4] Modern Greek τραγωδία (tragodía) has, besides the ancient genre, the sense of a terrible event, which it took from French tragédie.[6] It was borrowed as Latin tragoedia.[6][1]

Timeline

  • 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it for a tragedy.[5][4][7]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Plato calls Homer a tragic poet.[5][4]
  • 4th century BC – Aristotle's Poetics discusses tragedy.[5]
  • 4th century BC – Hyperides uses it for exaggerated speech.[5][4]
  • 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it for sensational accounts of horrors.[5][4]
  • Modern Greek – τραγωδία “tragedy; disaster”.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A tragedy, a tragic play; tragedy as a genre.[5][4]
  2. Any grave, serious poetry.[5]
  3. Exaggerated, melodramatic speech or behaviour; sensational description of horrors.[5][4]
  4. Outward grandeur, pomp, play-acting.[5][4]

Word family

  • τραγῳδιογράφος (tragōidiográphos)
  • τραγῴδιον (tragōídion)
  • τραγῳδός (tragōidós)
  • τραγικός (tragikós)
  • τραγῳδέω (tragōidéō)
  • τράγος (trágos)
  • κωμῳδία (kōmōidía)
  • English tragedy

Usage notes

Ancient sources explain the name as “goat-song” because a goat was the prize, and the Etymologicum Magnum records other explanations.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f 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 c 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 Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  7. ^ Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge