φράσις

Forms

φρᾰ́σῐς (phrásis) f (genitive φρᾰ́σεως); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is a derivative from Ancient Greek φράζω (phrázō, “to point out, tell”), whose stem ends in ⟨δ⟩;^[1][2] Wiktionary takes it to stand for *φράστις (*phrástis), with the Indo-European suffix Proto-Indo-European *-tis, like φραστικός (phrastikós).^[1][2][3] Babiniotis notes that the verb first meant to show or indicate, by signs or words, and then to say.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record is in Aristophanes' Frogs, in the 5th century BC, where a speaker is found unclear “in the telling” of the events.^[4][3][5]

Semantic evolution

From the telling of something, as in Aristophanes, the word came to mean a person's way of speaking: a fragment of Aristotle calls a man clever in expression, and Plutarch's Life of Cato the Elder praises the speed and sharpness of a man's speech.^[4][6] In the critics and historians of the Hellenistic and Roman periods it was the usual word for style or diction: Polybius uses it of a writer's phrasing, Strabo distinguishes poetic, tragic and historical style, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus speaks of plain and figurative, lofty and simple diction.^[4][6] The Stoics set expression beside invention and arrangement, and the treatise On the Sublime speaks of noble diction.^[4] The scholia use it for a single expression or idiom, as when they call a phrase Attic.^[4] Hesychius glosses it as “diction, dialogue, interpretation”.^[7] Zonaras explains it as the interpretation of obscure things, and derives it from a verb φρῶ (phrô).^[8]

Latin borrowed it as phrasis.^[9] Today Modern Greek φράση (frási) is a learned word: its sense of a group of words with a complete meaning is a semantic loan from French phrase, from Latin and ultimately from the Greek word, while “way of speaking” continues the ancient sense.^[10]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Aristophanes uses it for the telling of events in the Frogs.^[4][3]
• 4th century BC – A fragment of Aristotle speaks of a man clever in expression.^[4][11]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it for a writer's style.^[6][5]
• 1st century BC – Dionysius of Halicarnassus makes it a term of literary criticism, with many kinds of diction.^[4][5]
• 1st century BC to 1st century AD – Strabo distinguishes poetic, tragic and historical style.^[4][11]
• Modern Greek – The learned word φράση (frási) means a phrase, after French.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The telling or setting out of something, exposition.^[6][4]
2. A way of speaking, speech, expression.^[4][6]
3. Style, diction, phraseology of a writer.^[4][6]
4. A single expression, an idiom or phrase.^[4]
5. A text.^[4]

Word family

• φραστικός (phrastikós)

Related words

• φράζω (phrázō)
• Latin phrasis

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Βικιλεξικό, the Greek Wiktionary, https://el.wiktionary.org
3. ^ a b c d Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
6. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
8. ^ Pseudo-Zonaras, Lexicon, ed. Johann August Heinrich Tittmann (1808), Iohannis Zonarae Lexicon, Leipzig: Crusius
9. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge