Etymologically
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χρῶμα

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /kʰrɔ̂ː.ma/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈxro.ma/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈxro.ma/[1]

Forms

χρῶμᾰ (khrôma) n (genitive χρώμᾰτος); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek χρώς (khrṓs, “surface of the body, skin, complexion”) with the suffix -μα (-ma), built on the stem χρω- (khrō-) of that noun.[1][2] Beekes treats it under χρόα (khróa) and that noun, and LSJ connects it with the verb χρώννυμι (khrṓnnumi, “to tinge, colour”), which belongs to the same family.[3][4][5]

The origin of the noun itself is uncertain.[1][6] It is an old s-stem, and Chantraine took the Mycenaean compound Mycenaean Greek a-ko-ro-we-e (said of oxen, “without spots” or “of one colour”) as pointing to a root *kʰrow- with a lost /w/.[3][7] Beekes finds the resemblance with χραύω (khraúō), χραίνω (khraínō) and χρίω (khríō, “to smear”) too superficial to support an etymology.[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It appears in the 5th century BC: Herodotus uses it of the skin colour of foreign peoples, and Euripides of a person's complexion, which changes with emotion.[8][4][9] LSJ also records the older sense “skin” in a Hippocratic treatise, though the manuscript reading there is doubtful.[4]

Semantic evolution

From the colour of the skin the word passed to colour in general, often contrasted with shape, and to the pigments and paints that give colour;[8][4] Plato speaks of dyeing with “colours” and of looking only at the colours and shapes of things.[8][4] Plato also uses the plural figuratively of the ornaments of poetry that distinguish it from prose, and later critics such as Dionysius of Halicarnassus speak of the “colours” of a style.[4][8]

In music it named a modification of the simple scale and then the chromatic genus; in rhetoric a plausible pretext; and in 6th-century Constantinople Agathias uses it of the circus factions.[4][10] Early Christian writers such as the Shepherd of Hermas use it for colour, and also for musical tone.[5]

It survives as Modern Greek χρώμα (chróma);[11] Triantafyllidis treats some of its modern senses as learned calques on French couleur.[11] English chroma (1889) and the combining form chromato- come from its Latinized form.[6]

Timeline

  • 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of the skin colour of peoples, and Euripides of a changing complexion.[8][4][10]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it of colour in general, of pigments, and figuratively of the ornaments of poetry.[4][8][10]
  • 4th century BC – Antiphanes uses the plural of musical modifications; later music theorists use it for the chromatic scale.[4][10]
  • 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus uses it for turmeric, a plant used in dyeing.[4][10]
  • 1st century BC – Dionysius of Halicarnassus speaks of the “colours” of a style.[4][10]
  • 6th century AD – Agathias uses it of the circus factions of Constantinople.[4][10]
  • Modern Greek – Modern Greek χρώμα (chróma) means “colour”, partly as a learned word.[11][2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The skin of the body.[4]
  2. Colour of the skin, complexion, especially as it changes with emotion.[8][4]
  3. Colour in general, hue, sometimes opposed to shape.[8][4]
  4. That which gives colour: pigment, paint, cosmetic.[8][4]
  5. (figurative, plural) Ornaments, embellishments, especially of poetry or style.[8][4]
  6. (music) A modification of the simple scale; the chromatic scale or genus.[4][5]
  7. (rhetoric) A colourable pretext.[4]
  8. Turmeric, used in dyeing.[4]
  9. (Byzantine) A faction of the circus at Constantinople.[4]

Word family

  • χρωματικός (khrōmatikós)
  • χρωμάτινος (khrōmátinos)
  • χρωματίζω (khrōmatízō)
  • χρώς (khrṓs)
  • χρόα (khróa)
  • χρώννυμι (khrṓnnumi)
  • English chroma

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c 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
  6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  9. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  11. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki