τροχαῖος

Forms

τροχαῖος (trokhaîos) m (feminine τροχαίᾱ, neuter τροχαῖον); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

Wiktionary has it from Ancient Greek τροχός (trokhós) + -αῖος (-aîos), “wheel, running course”,^[1] while LSJ derives it from τρόχος (trókhos) “course”.^[2][3] Both nouns are from Ancient Greek τρέχω (trékhō, “to run”).^[3][4] Babiniotis compares δρομαῖος (dromaîos) “running”, formed with the same suffix.^[5]

The trochee was named as the “running” foot,^[4] and Aristotle describes it as the rhythm of quick movement.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Plato's Republic (4th century BC), as the name of a metrical foot of a long and a short syllable, the trochee.^[2][6][7]

Semantic evolution

Aristotle uses it in the Rhetoric and the Poetics for the trochee and trochaic rhythm, which he calls the rhythm of quick movement; the foot was also called χορεῖος (khoreîos).^[2][6] In music it described quick time: Plutarch speaks of a trochaic tune invented by Terpander, and Dio Cassius of trumpeters playing a brisk march.^[2] The writers on metre later distinguished several kinds, and the Latin trochaeus could even mean a tribrach in Quintilian.^[2][8] An epigram of Leonidas uses the adjective in its plain sense, of spinning spools.^[2]

English trochee (1580s) comes through French and Latin from the Greek word.^[4] Modern Greek keeps it as a learned metrical term,^[9][5] beside a new adjective Modern Greek τροχαίος (trochaíos) “of road traffic”, made afresh from τροχός “wheel”.^[9]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it for the trochee in the Republic.^[2][10]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle describes the trochee as the rhythm of quick movement.^[2][10]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Leonidas uses the adjective of spinning spools.^[2][10]
• 1st century AD – Quintilian uses Latin trochaeus for a tribrach.^[2][10]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch speaks of a trochaic tune invented by Terpander.^[2][10]
• 2nd–3rd century AD – Dio Cassius uses it of a brisk march played by trumpeters.^[2][10]
• 1580s – English borrows the word as trochee, through French and Latin.^[4]
• Modern Greek – τροχαίος (trochaíos) survives as a learned metrical term.^[9][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Running, spinning.^[2]

Noun

1. A trochee, a metrical foot of a long and a short syllable.^[2][6]
2. Trochaic rhythm.^[6]
3. (music) A brisk march or a tune in trochaic time.^[2]

Related words

• τρέχω (trékhō)
• τροχός (trokhós)
• τρόχος (trókhos)
• Latin trochaeus
• English trochee

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
6. ^ a b c d Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ 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 c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ a b c d e f Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge