Etymologically
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ἕρμα

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Pronunciation

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

Forms

ἕρμᾰ (hérma) n (genitive ἕρμᾰτος); third declension[1] Aeolic ἔρμα (érma).[2]

Etymology

In form it is an old verbal noun in -μα (-ma) with the regular e-grade of its root, but no etymology is agreed, and its very different meanings have led some scholars to give its senses different origins.[3][4][5] Porzig joined the meanings by starting from ‘stone’: the stones that prop a beached ship, the stones used as ballast, and, sarcastically, the rocks under the sea.[3] Chantraine accepts this starting point.[3][4]

For an Indo-European source Beekes thinks of Lithuanian sveriù (“I weigh”), svarùs (“heavy”) and Old High German swāri (“heavy”), so that the first sense would be ‘heavy weight, stone’, from Proto-Indo-European *suér-mn̥.[3] Babiniotis also prefers this comparison.[6] Others compared the ‘reef’ sense with Sanskrit वर्ष्मन् (várṣman-, “height, top”), which overlooks the fact that the rocks in question lie under the water, and the ‘prop’ sense with words for a post such as स्वरु (sváru-, “sacrificial post”), Old English swer (“column”) and Latin surus (“stake”), though ἕρμα probably never meant a pole.[3][5] Wiktionary sets up Proto-Hellenic *wérhmə and notes that the Mycenaean form e-ma-ta lacks the initial /w/ that the Sanskrit comparison needs.[1]

Kretschmer thought it Anatolian, pointing to the Lydian river Hermos and Lycian personal names in Erm- and Arm-, and Chantraine also leaned to a non-Indo-European origin, but Beekes sees no reason to assume a foreign word.[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Iliad the plural names the long props set under ships hauled up on the beach to keep them upright (Il. 1.486).[7][8] Figuratively a hero is the ἕρμα πόληος, the “prop of the city” (Il. 16.549), and an arrow is called the ἕρμα, apparently the source, of dark pains (Il. 4.117).[8][7]

Semantic evolution

From Alcaeus on, the word means a sunken rock or reef, a danger to ships, in Anacreon, Aeschylus, Herodotus, Thucydides and Euripides.[7][2] Aeschylus speaks figuratively of the reef of Justice.[7][2][3] Harpocration notes it in the orator Antiphon in the sense of a hidden rock.[9] Aristophanes uses it for ballast, the stones cranes were believed to swallow, and Aristotle and later prose for a ship's ballast.[2][3] Sophocles and an epigram use it for a heap of stones, a cairn.[3][4]

The figurative ‘prop, foundation’ also continues: Plato makes a principle the foundation of his city, and Plutarch calls a council of elders the ballast of the state.[7][2] Derivatives are ἑρμίς (hermī́s) ‘bedpost’ and ἕρμαξ (hérmax) ‘heap of stones’.[5]

Modern Greek έρμα (érma), a learned word, is the ballast of a ship.[10][6]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad uses it for the props of beached ships and figuratively of men.[8][7]
  • 7th–6th century BC – Alcaeus uses it for a reef.[7][3][11]
  • 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus speaks of the reef of Justice.[7][2][11]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus and Thucydides use it for sunken rocks, and Sophocles for a heap of stones.[7][3][11]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it for ballast, and Plato for a principle on which a city rests.[2][7][11]
  • 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it of ballast, literal and figurative.[2][7][11]
  • Modern Greek – έρμα (érma) is learned and means ship's ballast.[10][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A prop or stay set under a ship drawn up on shore.[7][2][8]
  2. (figurative) A prop, mainstay, of a person who supports a city; a foundation or principle.[7][2]
  3. (Homer) Apparently a source or cause, of an arrow that brings pain.[8][2]
  4. ballast, a weight that steadies something in motion; figuratively, of what steadies a state.[2][7]
  5. A sunken rock, reef; a bank of mud.[7][2]
  6. A heap of stones, cairn.[7][3]

Word family

  • ἑρμίς (hermī́s)
  • ἕρμαξ (hérmax)
  • Ἑρμῆς (Hermês)

Usage notes

Homer's plural ἕρματα ‘earrings’ (Il. 14.182, Od. 18.297) is a separate word, from εἴρω (eírō) ‘to string together’.[8][2]

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 m n Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  6. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  9. ^ Harpocration, Lexicon in decem oratores Atticos, ed. Wilhelm Dindorf (Oxford, 1853)
  10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  11. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge