ἡρωΐνη

Forms

ἡρωῑ̈́νη (hērōī̈́nē) f (genitive ἡρωῑ̈́νης, masculine ἥρως); first declension^[1] Attic contracted ἡρῴνη (hērṓinē) (Aristophanes, inscriptions); Lesbian ἠροΐνα (ēroḯna).^[2]

Etymology

It is the feminine of the word for “hero”, formed as from Ancient Greek ἥρως (hḗrōs, “hero”) + -ίνη (-ī́nē).^[1][2][3] Attic contracted it to ἡρῴνη (hērṓinē).^[2]

Latin heroina (also heroine) was borrowed from it,^[4][5] and English heroine (1650s) comes from the Latin word.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first occurrence is the contracted plural ἡρῷναι (hērôinai) in Aristophanes' Clouds, meaning “heroines”.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The full form ἡρωΐνη is Hellenistic poetry's word for the heroines and demigoddesses of myth: Theocritus and Callimachus use it,^[2][3] and later Dionysius Periegetes, Lucian and Dio Cassius.^[2] Inscriptions from Samos and Attica call a dead woman by it, as a dead man was called a hero,^[2] and the emperor Julian used it of a deified empress.^[2] A Lesbian inscription has the dialect form ἠροΐνα (ēroḯna).^[2]

In English, heroine first meant a demigoddess; the sense “woman of exalted courage” is recorded from the 1660s, and that of the principal female character of a story from 1715.^[5] Modern Greek ηρωίνη (iroíni) “heroin” is a different, learned word: a borrowing, through French héroïne, of the German trade name Heroin, which was coined from ἥρως because of the drug's euphoric effect.^[7][8]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses the contracted form in the Clouds.^[2][6][9]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theocritus and Callimachus use the full form of the heroines of myth.^[2][3][9]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Dionysius Periegetes uses it, and Lucian after him in the 2nd century.^[2][9]
• 1650s – English heroine is recorded, meaning a demigoddess.^[5]
• 1715 – The English word takes the sense of the main female character of a story.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A heroine, a demigoddess.^[2][3][10]
2. A dead woman honoured as a heroine.^[2]
3. A deified empress.^[2]

Related words

• ἥρως (hḗrōs)
• Latin heroina
• English heroine

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 o Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
4. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
8. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
9. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
10. ^ Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg