ἀνώμαλος

Forms

ᾰ̓νώμᾰλος (anṓmalos) m or f (neuter ᾰ̓νώμᾰλον); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-, “not”) + ὁμαλός (homalós, “even, level”),^[1][2][3] with the initial vowel of the second part lengthened in the compound.^[3] ὁμαλός (homalós) is formed like Latin similis (“like”) from Proto-Indo-European *semh₂-l-; its o-grade is often thought to come from ὁμός (homós, “same”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Democritus, in the 5th century BC, uses it of an uneven cone and of an unbalanced mixture.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word meant “uneven”, of land and roads (the Hippocratic Airs, Waters, Places, Plato's Laws), and “irregular, not uniform”, of natures, movements and periods of time in Plato and Aristotle.^[2][5] Applied to communities it meant unequal or ill-balanced (Plato), and to fortune changeable: Euripides laments how uneven mortal fortunes are.^[2][6] Of persons it meant inconsistent or capricious: Aristotle's Poetics wants an inconsistent character to be “consistently inconsistent”, and the comic poet Phrynichus calls an ape capricious.^[2][5]

The grammarians used it of irregular words and constructions (Apollonius Dyscolus), and the Latin grammarians took it over as Latin anomalus, and English anomalous (1640s) comes from the Late Latin word.^[5][7] Modern Greek ανώμαλος (anómalos) continues it as a learned word, “uneven” (of ground) and “irregular”; its sense “abnormal” is a semantic loan from French anormale and English abnormal.^[8] Its noun ἀνωμαλία (anōmalía) lives on as ανωμαλία (anomalía).^[3]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Democritus uses it of an uneven cone.^[5]
• 5th century BC – Euripides uses it of the changeable fortunes of mortals.^[2][5]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it of irregular motion and of inconsistent characters.^[2][5]
• 2nd century AD – Apollonius Dyscolus uses the neuter of irregularity in syntax.^[5]
• 1640s – English anomalous is first recorded, from Late Latin.^[7]
• Modern Greek – The learned adjective means “uneven”, “irregular” and, after French and English, “abnormal”.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Uneven, not level, rugged (of land or a road).^[2][6][5]
2. Not uniform, heterogeneous; unequal, ill-balanced (of cities, constitutions, wealth).^[6][2]
3. Irregular, not uniform (of motion, periods of time, the voice).^[2][5]
4. Of fortune or events: changeable, fluctuating.^[2][6]
5. Of persons: inconsistent, capricious.^[2][6]
6. (grammar) Anomalous, departing from the general rule.^[2][5]

Word family

• ἀνωμαλία (anōmalíā)
• ἀνωμαλότης (anōmalótēs)

Related words

• ὁμαλός (homalós)
• ὁμός (homós)
• Latin anomalus
• English anomalous
• English anomaly

References

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