φρίκη

Forms

φρῑ́κη (phrī́kē) f (genitive φρῑ́κης); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is an enlarged form from Ancient Greek φρίξ (phríx, “shiver, ruffling of the sea”), with the same meaning.^[2][1][3] That word has no certain cognate outside Greek, and Beekes thinks it may be Pre-Greek.^[2] Chantraine finds no clear comparison: Latin frīgus (“cold”) belongs rather with ῥῖγος (rhîgos), and a link with Welsh brig (“top, crest of a wave”) is proposed only with reserve.^[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Herodotus and Sophocles have it first, both of a shudder of fear: in Herodotus a shudder comes over a man, and in Sophocles the chorus tells Oedipus that he gives them such a shudder.^[5][6][3]

Semantic evolution

The word ranged from bodily shivering to the shudder of fear and awe.^[5][4] In the Hippocratic writings it is a shivering, a milder form of ῥῖγος (rhîgos), and in Plato the cold fit before a fever.^[5][4] In tragedy and later prose it is a shuddering fear, often religious awe, or horror at something, and Plutarch speaks of a theatre held in shuddering silence.^[5][6] Like φρίξ, it was also the ruffling of the sea's surface.^[5][4] The Greek Bible pairs it with trembling (Job 4:14), and the Shepherd of Hermas uses it of a shudder of fear.^[7]

Modern Greek φρίκη (fríki), a learned form of the ancient word, is a shudder of fear or revulsion, horror.^[8]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Herodotus and Sophocles use it of a shudder of fear or awe, and Euripides uses it of horror.^[5][6][9]
• 5th century BC – The Hippocratic writings use it of a feverish shiver.^[5][4]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it of the cold fit before a fever.^[5][6]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it of a ruffle on a calm sea and of a theatre in awed silence.^[5]
• Modern Greek – The learned φρίκη (fríki) means horror.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A shivering, shuddering, as in the cold fit of a fever.^[5][6]
2. A shudder of fear, esp. religious awe; horror.^[5][6][7]
3. The ruffling of the sea's surface.^[5]
4. Frost, chill.^[5][2]

Related words

• φρίξ (phríx)
• φρίσσω (phríssō)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux