ἁρμονικός

Forms

ἁρμονῐκός (harmonikós) m (feminine ἁρμονῐκή, neuter ἁρμονῐκόν); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek ἁρμονία (harmoníā, “fitting together; harmony”) + -ικός (-ikós).^[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plato's Phaedrus has it of a man skilled in music: μουσικὸς ἐντυχὼν ἀνδρὶ οἰομένῳ ἁρμονικῷ εἶναι, “a musician who meets a man who believes himself an expert in harmony”.^[3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

In Plato and Aristotle the neuter plural means the theory of music, and the feminine, with “science” understood, the mathematical theory of music, one of the mathematical sciences.^[3][6][4] The masculine plural names the theorists of music, and Aristotle speaks of those who work by numbers, and Theophrastus also uses it.^[3][6] Aristoxenus called his treatise Elements of Harmonics.^[3][4] Archytas named the third of the three means of music, beside the arithmetic and the geometric, the harmonic mean, and later arithmetic kept the term for a mean and a proportion.^[4][3]

Plutarch uses it of the enharmonic scale, and figuratively of a person able to bring things into harmony; he also reports that the god is called harmonic and musical.^[3][4] Galen speaks of a harmonic movement of the pulse, in keeping with the state of the body, and Philostratus of training by rule of thumb.^[3]

It was borrowed into Latin harmonicus, from which English harmonic, first “relating to music” in the 1560s, and French harmonique come.^[7][1] The modern Modern Greek αρμονικός (armonikós) is learned, partly a semantic loan from the French word; it means harmonious, well proportioned, and musical.^[8]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it in the Phaedrus of people skilled in music, and its neuter plural for the theory of music.^[3][6][4]
• 4th century BC – Archytas names the harmonic mean, Aristotle calls the theory of music a mathematical science, and Aristoxenus writes his Elements of Harmonics.^[4][3]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus uses the masculine plural for musical theorists.^[6][4]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it of the enharmonic scale and of people able to bring things into harmony.^[3][4]
• 2nd century AD – Galen describes a harmonic movement of the pulse.^[3][4]
• 1560s – English borrows harmonic, “relating to music”, from Latin.^[7]
• Modern Greek – αρμονικός (armonikós) is a learned word, partly modelled on French, for harmonious and musical.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of persons: skilled in music or harmonics; as a masculine noun, a musical theorist.^[6][3][4]
2. Of or relating to musical harmony, harmonic; as a noun, the theory of music.^[6][3][4]
3. Of or in the enharmonic scale.^[3][4]
4. (arithmetic) Harmonic, of a mean or a proportion.^[3][4]
5. Of the pulse: in keeping with the state of the body.^[3]
6. Of training: done by rule of thumb.^[3]
7. (figurative) Able to bring into harmony; said also of God.^[3][4]

Related words

• ἁρμονία (harmoníā)
• ἁρμόζω (harmózō)
• Latin harmonicus
• English harmonic

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, online ed., https://www.koeblergerhard.de
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
5. ^ 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. ^ 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