Etymologically
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τύραννος

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /tý.ran.nos/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈty.ran.nos/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈty.ran.nos/[1]

Forms

τῠ́ρᾰννος (túrannos) m or f (genitive τῠρᾰ́ννου); second declension[1]

Etymology

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek, because of its suffix ⟨-ανν-⟩, and finds none of the other hypotheses plausible.[2][3] Frisk calls it an unexplained foreign word from the culture of Asia Minor and the Aegean, like βασιλεύς (basileús) and probably ἄναξ (ánax), unlike the inherited κοίρανος (koíranos).[4] The New Pauly suggests Lydian tūran (“lord”), and Wiktionary a Lydian or other Anatolian word for “king”.[5][1]

Comparisons with Etruscan turan, a title of Venus (perhaps “mistress”), and with Hittite tarawanaš are doubtful, according to Babiniotis and Frisk.[6][4][1] Scarborough's database rates its foreign origin as very reliable.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

According to the New Pauly, the word is first attested in the mid-7th century BC, in Archilochus, for the Lydian king Gyges;[5] Hippias already said it was first used in Archilochus' time.[5][8] Semonides then uses it of a ruler, and Alcaeus of Pittacus.[8][9]

Semantic evolution

At first it was neutral, a synonym of monarchy: it named the autocrats who seized power in many Greek cities in the 7th and 6th centuries BC, and could also be used of gods, of a queen or princess, and in the plural of a royal family.[9][5][8] Herodotus applies it to oriental kings and satraps.[9] Aristocratic poets used it to attack a rival, and it later took on its bad sense, the despot of the orators, Plato and Aristotle.[5][9] Thucydides calls Athens a “tyrant city”.[9]

Latin borrowed it as tyrannus.[10] Modern Greek τύραννος (týrannos) continues the ancient word, and is a learned word in the original sense of an absolute ruler.[11]

Timeline

  • 7th century BC – Archilochus uses the word, of the Lydian king Gyges.[5][12]
  • 7th–6th century BC – Semonides and Alcaeus use it of rulers.[8][12]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of Greek tyrants and of oriental kings.[9][12]
  • 5th century BC – Thucydides calls Athens a “tyrant city”.[9][12]
  • 4th century BC – The orators, Plato and Aristotle use it of the despot.[9][12]
  • Modern Greek – It survives, and is a learned word in the sense of an absolute ruler.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An absolute ruler, whose power is not limited by law, a monarch; of gods, a lord.[8][9]
  2. A tyrant, an autocrat who seized power in a Greek city; later, a despot.[9][5]
  3. (feminine) A queen, a princess.[8][9]

Adjective

  1. Royal, kingly; despotic, tyrannical.[9][2]

Word family

  • ἀτυράννευτος (aturánneutos)
  • ἰσοτύραννος (isotúrannos)
  • τυραννεῖον (turanneîon)
  • τυραννεύω (turanneúō)
  • τυραννίζω (turannízō)
  • τυραννικός (turannikós)
  • τυραννικῶς (turannikôs)
  • τυραννίς (turannís)
  • τυραννοκτονία (turannoktoníā)
  • τυραννοποιός (turannopoiós)
  • φιλοτύραννος (philotúrannos)
  • ἀντιτυραννέω (antiturannéō)
  • ἐντυραννέομαι (enturannéomai)
  • κατατυραννέω (kataturannéō)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2002–2010), Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill
  6. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  7. ^ Scarborough, Matthew (2025), PHILOGLOSSA: database of Pre-Greek and other non-Indo-European words in Ancient Greek, version 1.0
  8. ^ a b c d e f Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  10. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  12. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge