φλογμός

Forms

φλογμός (phlogmós), genitive φλογμοῦ, masculine, second declension.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is a noun in -μός (-mós) from Ancient Greek φλέγω (phlégō, “to burn”),^[1][3][4] with the o-grade of the root seen in φλόξ (phlóx, “flame”), from which some derive it directly.^[5][6][7] The verb is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleg- (“to burn, shine”).^[8][9] Its nearest cognates are Latin fulgeō (“to shine”), flagrō (“to blaze”) and flamma (“flame”), and Old High German blecchen (“to make visible”) and Dutch blaken (“to blaze”).^[8][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Aeschylus' Eumenides has it first, of a scorching heat that harms plants.^[2][1][11]

Semantic evolution

In tragedy it is a blaze or flash, above all the fire of lightning: in Euripides' Suppliants a speaker wishes for “the blaze of Zeus” to fall on him.^[2][1][5] Apollonius of Rhodes uses it of flaming heat, and a treatise of the Aristotelian corpus of the glowing lava of volcanoes.^[1][2]

Medicine used it from the Hippocratic On Ancient Medicine on for inflammation, and later for the heat of fever, as in Lucian,^[2][12] while Philo uses it both for fire and for the heat of passion.^[2][12] The lexicographers explain it as heat coming from burning, and Zonaras says that in Galen it means φλεγμονή (phlegmonḗ, “inflammation”), quoting Psellus for the same.^[13][14][15]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it of scorching heat that harms plants.^[2][1][16]
• 5th century BC – Euripides uses it of the blaze of lightning, and the Hippocratic writers of inflammation.^[2][1][16]
• 3rd century BC – Apollonius of Rhodes uses it of flaming heat.^[1][16]
• 1st century BC to 1st century AD – Philo uses it of fire and of the heat of passion.^[2][16]
• 2nd century AD – Lucian uses it of the heat of fever.^[2][16]
• 13th century AD – The lexicon of Zonaras equates it with φλεγμονή in Galen.^[15][16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A flame, blaze, as of lightning.^[2][1]
2. Fiery or scorching heat; of burning lava.^[2][1][12]
3. Fire.^[2]
4. (medicine) Inflammation; the heat of fever.^[2][12][15]
5. (figurative) The heat of passion.^[2]

Related words

• φλέγω (phlégō)
• φλόξ (phlóx)
• φλέγμα (phlégma)
• φλεγμονή (phlegmonḗ)
• φλογισμός (phlogismós)
• Latin flamma

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
4. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1889), An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Woordenboek Grieks/Nederlands (2012–), Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, https://woordenboekgrieks.nl
6. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
7. ^ Βικιλεξικό, the Greek Wiktionary, https://el.wiktionary.org
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
10. ^ 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
11. ^ Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
12. ^ a b c d Дворецкий, И. Х. (1958), Древнегреческо-русский словарь, Moscow: ГИС
13. ^ Photius, Lexicon, ed. Christos Theodoridis, vol. 1 (Α–Δ) (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1982); ed. Richard Porson (Cambridge, 1822)
14. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b c Pseudo-Zonaras, Lexicon, ed. Johann August Heinrich Tittmann (1808), Iohannis Zonarae Lexicon, Leipzig: Crusius
16. ^ a b c d e f Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge