τραγῳδός

Forms

τρᾰγῳδός (tragōidós) m (genitive τρᾰγῳδοῦ); second declension^[1] Late Boeotian τραγαϝυδός (tragawudós), for τραγαοιδός.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a compound from Ancient Greek τράγος (trágos, “he-goat”) + ἀοιδός (aoidós, “singer”), probably formed after the pattern of ῥαψῳδός (rhapsōidós).^[4][3][1] Why the singer was named after the goat is uncertain.^[4][1] The traditional explanation, already in the Parian Marble, is that a goat was the prize of the winner in the oldest dramatic contest, a view Else defended with new arguments.^[3][4] Another links the goat with the satyrs, attendants of Dionysus dressed in goatskins, of the satyr play from which tragedy developed.^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Aristophanes, for a member of the tragic chorus, and in the plural for the tragic chorus or the tragic stage.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

In Attic, οἱ τραγῳδοί often meant a performance of tragedy itself: a choregus “for the tragedians” paid for a tragic chorus, and καινοῖς τραγῳδοῖς meant “at the performance of the new tragedies”.^[2][4] Inscriptions of the Hellenistic period, from Delos, Delphi and Egypt, list τραγῳδοί as performers in festival contests, and in later Greek the word meant a tragic actor; only rarely, and mostly doubtfully, does it mean a writer of tragedies, who was usually called τραγῳδοποιός (tragōidopoiós) or τραγῳδοδιδάσκαλος (tragōidodidáskalos).^[2][3][4] Hesychius glosses it as “chorus dancer”.^[7]

From it came τραγῳδία (tragōidíā), “tragedy”, and τραγῳδέω (tragōidéō), “to act in tragedy, to tell with tragic pathos”.^[3] Latin borrowed it as tragoedus.^[8] Modern Greek τραγωδός (tragodós) is a learned revival meaning a leading tragic actor or actress.^[9]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it for members of the tragic chorus and, in the plural, for the tragic stage.^[2][6]
• 4th century BC – Aeschines and Demosthenes use the plural for the tragic performances at the Dionysia.^[2]
• 3rd century BC – Inscriptions from Delos and Delphi list tragic performers by this name.^[2]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch calls the actor Aesopus a τραγῳδός.^[2]
• Modern Greek – The learned τραγωδός (tragodós) means a tragic actor.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A member of the tragic chorus; a singer and dancer in tragedy.^[2][4]
2. (in the plural) A tragedy or a performance of tragedy; the tragic stage.^[2][4]
3. A tragic actor.^[2][4]
4. Rarely and doubtfully, a writer of tragedies.^[4][3]

Word family

• τραγῳδέω (tragōidéō)
• τραγῳδία (tragōidíā)
• τραγῳδικός (tragōidikós)

Related words

• τράγος (trágos)
• ἀοιδός (aoidós)
• ῥαψῳδός (rhapsōidós)
• Latin tragoedus
• English tragedy

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
8. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki