Etymologically
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ἀδάμας

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /a.dá.maːs/[1]
  • IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /aˈða.mas/[1]
  • IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /aˈða.mas/[1]

Forms

ἀδᾰ́μᾱς (adámās) m (genitive ἀδᾰ́μᾰντος); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is often derived from ἀ- (a-) “not” and δάμνημι (dámnēmi) “to tame, subdue”, as “indomitable”, formed like ἀκάμας (akámas), and identified with the Homeric personal name Ἀδάμας.[2][3][4]

Beekes finds this semantically strange and takes the word rather as a loanword adapted by folk etymology.[2] Troxler and Barb proposed a Semitic source, comparing Akkadian adamu, and Lubotsky compared the Neo-Phrygian (α)τεαμα “stone”.[2][1] Frisk likewise suspects a foreign origin because of the meaning, and the CGL marks the link with δάμνημι as a popular etymology.[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer has it only as a personal name, Adamas, a Trojan.[4][6] As a common noun it first appears in Hesiod, for a legendary metal of surpassing hardness, probably steel: the great sickle used to mutilate Cronus is made of grey adamant, and the shield of Heracles has fittings of pale adamant.[4][7]

Semantic evolution

It remained the type of hardness and rigidity: Hesiod's men of the bronze race had hearts of adamant, Pindar speaks of a heart forged of adamant or iron, an oracle in Herodotus speaks a word “fixed with adamant”, and Plato makes the hook of the spindle of Necessity of adamant.[7][4] In Theophrastus it is the diamond, and Plato probably meant that already.[4] Alexis uses it as a metaphor for the hard toil of love.[4][5] It appears in the Septuagint in Amos 7:7–8.[8]

Medieval Greek used it for the diamond, as does the learned Modern Greek αδάμας (adámas) that Triantafyllidis glosses as διαμάντι.[9][10] It was borrowed as Latin adamans, and a Vulgar Latin *adiamantem, altered under the influence of Greek words in dia-, gave English diamond through Old French; English adamant goes back to the same Latin word.[11]

Timeline

  • Homer – only the personal name Adamas.[4][6]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod: the sickle of grey adamant.[4][7]
  • 6th–5th century BC – Pindar: a heart forged of adamant.[7]
  • 5th century BC – an oracle in Herodotus: a word “fixed with adamant”.[4][7]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Plato: the hook of Necessity's spindle.[7]
  • 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus uses it for the diamond.[4][7]
  • Mid-14th century – English diamaunt, through Vulgar Latin and Old French.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Adamant, a legendary metal of surpassing hardness, probably steel; often figurative, of stubbornness or rigidity.[5][4][7]
  2. Diamond.[4][1]
  3. A hard metal resembling gold.[1]

Adjective

  1. (late) Unbreakable, and (figurative) fixed, unalterable.[4][1]

Word family

  • ἀδαμάντινος (adamántinos)
  • Latin adamans
  • English adamant
  • English diamond

Usage notes

Hesychius glosses it as “unfeeling, disobedient, fearless, strong”, as “the stone”, and as a kind of iron.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  6. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  8. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
  9. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  10. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  12. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)