τύρβη

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /týr.bɛː/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈtyr.βi/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈtyr.vi/^[1]

Forms

τῠ́ρβη (túrbē) f (genitive τῠ́ρβης); first declension^[1] Also σύρβη (Suda, Eustathius); adverb τύρβα (σύρβα in Hesychius) “pell-mell”.^[2][3]

Etymology

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek, from Pre-Greek, because the variation between τύρβη (túrbē) and σύρβη (súrbē) points to a palatalised /tʲ/ of the substrate.^[2][4] Chantraine calls it one of a family of expressive and obscure words: the sequence of /u/ and a final /b/ does not look Indo-European, and none of the proposed comparisons is plausible except Latin turba (“confusion, crowd”).^[5] Frisk explained the form with σ- as a sound change or as a popular association with σύρω (súrō, “to drag”).^[6][5]

The match between τύρβη and the Latin word is complete, but both are isolated.^[5] Chantraine thinks the Latin word may be borrowed from Greek, and Beekes finds a common inherited origin difficult.^[5][2] Others have joined both to the Germanic family of Proto-Germanic *sturmaz (“storm”) and *sturjan (“to stir”) through a root Proto-Indo-European *(s)twerH-, or to Latin turma (“troop”) and Old English þrymm (“crowd”);^[1][6] Frisk himself pointed out that such a sequence of sounds violates the Indo-European sound system.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Attic and Ionic prose of the 5th and 4th centuries BC: the Hippocratic treatise On Fractures speaks of causing trouble or disturbance, and Isocrates of the turmoil in which people live.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

Xenophon and Polybius use it for the confusion created by a crowd.^[8][3] Epicurus speaks of “the poetic rout”, Pausanias uses it for a Bacchic festival and its dance, and the Suda glosses it as “revelry”.^[3] Its verb τυρβάζω (turbázō) meant to stir up, throw into confusion, and also to revel.^[2][5]

The word is rare in the ancient corpus.^[7] Modern Greek τύρβη (tírvi) is a learned word for the noise and bustle of a moving crowd.^[9]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – The Hippocratic On Fractures uses it of disturbance.^[3][7]
• 5th–4th century BC – Isocrates and Xenophon use it for turmoil and confusion.^[8][3][10]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it of the confusion of a crowd.^[8][3][10]
• 2nd century AD – Pausanias uses it for a Bacchic festival and its dance.^[3][10]
• Modern Greek – It survives as the learned τύρβη, “bustle”.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Disorder, confusion, turmoil, especially of a crowd.^[8][3]
2. A Bacchic revel and its dance; revelry.^[3]

Word family

• τυρβάζω (turbázō)
• τύρβα (túrba)

Related words

• Latin turba
• English turbid

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e 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
6. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
7. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ a b c d Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge